“Are you sure what you are choosing?”, “Is a career that includes Mathematics and Computing for a girl?” Valentina heard the question several times before deciding.
To his own doubts regarding the choice of a career linked to science and technology – also new, such as Data Sciences – were added prejudiced comments about scientific activity, in which mathematics and computing seemed to be located at a fairly distant extreme. to the affinities (and also possibilities) of their gender.
These assessments, which may circulate more or less explicitly, refer to stereotypes and representations that still weigh today on certain professions and those who can practice them.
In particular, in research on public perception of science, it is maintained that the first image that arises when we think of someone who is dedicated to scientific activity is that of a man, with glasses and a white coat, in a classic countertop laboratory. test tubes. At least some of these elements appear to us as a first idea.
But how are these types of representations constructed and how do they operate when choosing a scientific career?
There are several reasons related to this first representation. One of them is the invisibility of women in the history of science, and the relativization of their role in innovative processes and the generation of new knowledge.
But there is more…
Generally, the representation of a professional activity (distorted or not) is constructed based on several factors: cultural patterns, what the media shows (or omit), also the evaluations that significant people in our lives have of it. .
At the same time, with regard to gender, there are beliefs and expectations that we have naturalized since childhood, culturally acquired in the socialization processes that begin in the family, continue in schooling, and contribute to shaping the preferences of women. and men in the choice of careers and professions.
These gender-biased views also weigh on school performance, leading to even self-conditioning processes in the perception of abilities and skills between men and women (for example: girls “not suitable for mathematics”), which also end up naturalizing progress. male in these disciplines.
As we grow, these representations guide interests and shape vocations, and end up operating strongly when defining a study or choosing a profession, in some cases conditioning it, and even curtailing it.
The following example illustrates the situation in relation to gender and choice of a science career: despite the notable growth in the participation of women in the university in the so-called feminization of university enrollment (between 6 and 7 out of every 10 entrants to the University are women) patterns of choosing historically “feminized” or “traditionally masculinized” careers still continue to be reproduced.
Careers linked to health, social sciences and education appear as an extension of caring, maternal and domestic roles, which has not changed much over time. In the same way, a good part of the scientific and technological orientations continue to be associated with masculine activities, and it is then that the proportions are reversed: 7 out of every 10 young people who enter careers in Computing, Data Sciences, Mathematics or Physics in Exacta de the UBA are men.
That is, the presence of women in Science and Technology careers did not grow in the heat of the feminization of university enrollment, as if the gender stereotype that weighed on them still constituted a core quite resistant to being deconstructed.
Graduate in Psychopedagogy, director of Vocational Guidance (DOV) of the Faculty of Exact Sciences of the University of Buenos Aires.