04/06/2019

Viana highlights initiatives to increase female representation in STEM fields.

Interviewed on the Conexão program dedicated to women's mathematics olympiads, Marcelo Viana, director-general of the institute, announced the date of the national competition that IMPA is organizing to encourage girls in the field and shared details about the IMPA Girls Olympiad project, carried out in partnership with the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq).

At the opening of the Canal Futura program, presenter Bernardo Menezes highlighted Mariana Bigolin Groff's achievement, gold medalist at the last edition of the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), and introduced the guests of Conexão: in addition to Viana, the guests interviewed were Maria Clara Werneck, a student from Rio de Janeiro who won bronze at the EGMO, and Luize D'Urso, a mathematician from Rio de Janeiro and Brazil's runner-up in the competition, held in April in Kiev, Ukraine.

“A student from Rio Grande do Sul achieved an unprecedented feat this year: she won the first gold medal at the European Women's Mathematical Olympiad, a field culturally identified as masculine. She and other medal-winning students show that this is just another barrier to be overcome. And there are people working hard to make that happen. The Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics, IMPA, will organize a national edition of the tournament to reveal more talent here,” said Menezes at the beginning of the program.

Maria Clara Werneck shared her experience preparing for the EGMO and her feelings upon receiving the bronze medal in the competition, while Luize D'Urso spoke about her "Mathematics for Girls" project, which aims to encourage girls' participation in mathematics olympiads. She gives free classes on Saturdays to elementary and high school students who wish to participate in these competitions.

“Perhaps mathematics is seen as a very masculine field, but I don’t believe that. Although there are few girls, I think it’s because there is less encouragement, and perhaps they don’t feel confident enough,” Luize observed. “When you enter a room and out of nine or ten people, one or two are girls, you end up giving up. You don’t have the example,” Maria Clara reported.

According to Viana, encouragement is fundamental to increasing girls' participation in the Olympics. "We know that, for cultural reasons, boys are the majority and have much more encouragement."

Since 2017, when Brazil competed in the EGMO for the first time, IMPA and the Brazilian Mathematical Society (SBM) have funded the team's participation in the competition. This year, the schools of the four competing students also contributed to the costs. The country won two bronze medals and an unprecedented gold medal.

Like Luize, Viana assessed that these are subtle, yet everyday situations that contribute to girls feeling discouraged. “I increasingly believe that it is these small moments, which go almost unnoticed, but which accumulate and create this differentiation. Our culture is quite perverse in this aspect,” said the mathematician.

When asked about how IMPA has contributed to opening opportunities for girls, Viana announced the Girls' Mathematics Tournament, TM², for August 31st. "It's a national competition that will serve as a selection process for the European Girls' Mathematical Olympiad, but above all, it's an instrument to give girls an opportunity to shine," she emphasized.

In addition to the tournament, the director-general of IMPA spoke about the IMPA Olympic Girls project, which brings together elementary and high school students from five public schools in Rio and Niterói.

The full program is available on Futura Play.