Natural inclinations, cultural implications or something else? The univocal answer may not exist, but there is an incontrovertible fact, and it is more concrete than ever: at the dawn of 2020, the women-men gap in the disciplines "Stem" (acronym that stands for S cience, T echnology, E engineering and M athematics), is still too high.
UN alarm: shortage of women in scientific disciplines
The issue has even reached the tables of the United Nations, which a few months ago, and precisely in February, raised an alarm to which one cannot remain indifferent: 65% of boys and girls who enter primary school today will currently work. nonexistent or imaginable, but which in any case will almost certainly have to do with the scientific, mathematical or technological field. In this context, the under-representation of women in scientific and technological disciplines, which are the most necessary for the new trades and professions of the future, sounds even more alarming: according to UNESCO data, just 30% of university students have chosen Stem subjects.and less than one in three researchers in the world is a woman. And this is not the worst news: in fact, for certain specializations, such as information technology, the percentage of students enrolled in universities even drops to 3%. In practice, only three out of a hundred girls would be familiar with computational thinking, computers, programming and the like.
The opinion of a protagonist
Ivana Montelli, Prima Power Software Product Manager.
Right from here we started to try to understand something more. And with the help of a woman who has built her career on computer science. With great success: over the years he has climbed the positions until reaching that of SW Product Manager of Prima Power, machinery division of the Prima Industrie group. Her name is Ivana Montelli and, since she was a girl, she chose to follow her passion for scientific disciplines: "After high school, which I finished in 1981, I chose to attend the Computer Science Faculty of the University of Turin, my adopted city. At that time there was no computer engineering yet, it was pure computer science and I was very attracted to it. Those were pioneering times, but I must say there were no shortage of girls. In my course there were at least 200 out of 400, a good half. And I must also say that of my high school friends, who were not few, all found excellent jobs, even in the scientific field ".
"There was interest and passion"
And this is a first surprise. “So, I remember, that was it. I don't know what happened next, the fact is that in recent years, doing consultancy for the university, I too realized that the number of girls had dropped drastically. Something, in the mentality of the girls or elsewhere, must have changed. Then there was more interest and more passion. Personally, I never had any doubts: on the contrary, even before graduating I started working in a company in the sector, the Dea - Digital Electronic Automation, where I developed the thesis and stayed 15 years doing software development, then analysis, up to to manage my own project. There was a lot of room to grow, I didn't encounter any particular problems ".
Not many women "at the top" in scientific careers
"After leaving the Dea, I spent 9 years in freelance, before joining Prima Industrie first as a consultant, then as an employee. After working in Research & Development, now my role is to follow market trends and configure software products for customers' machines based on their needs and requirements. A job that leads me to interface with many people. And I must admit that in our sector, but also among many of our clients, there is no lack of women in managerial positions but they are the clear minority. There are a little more in IT, much less in manufacturing ». A pity, because the plurality of points of view is an element of great wealth that is increasingly failing, if only in certain sectors.
The responsibilities of the school
Montelli continues: «Yet in the past this was not the case, at least in my experience. I have often wondered what happened, and I think I have found an answer. Which starts from school: in middle and high school, always talking about my experience, I had extraordinary teachers of mathematics and science. I never got the feeling that someone was telling me that certain subjects weren't for me. Here, seeing the younger generations, I have the perception that both in high school and in university the value of a choice oriented to scientific disciplines is not adequately communicated. Probably the school has various responsibilities in this'. There are, of course, also cultural aspects: "The cultural heritage is still present, as well as a certain, forgive me the term, superficiality of approach which, however, I also see in many young people. Net of the cultural clichés, however, I believe that scientific disciplines must be communicated differently, precisely, I repeat, starting from school ".
The pro STEM initiatives of the Miur
It must be said, however, that in recent years the Miur, Ministry of Education, University and Research, has launched a series of initiatives within the framework of the implementation strategy of paragraph 16 of law 107/15, the latest structural reform school, and the promotion of equal opportunities aimed at countering gender stereotypes. One of the initiatives resulting from this attention was precisely "Stem month", Created last year by the General Directorate for Students, Integration and Participation in collaboration with the Department of Equal Opportunities of the Prime Minister, with the aim of promoting Stem disciplines in schools of all levels. Apparently we understand, in that of the Ministry one is perfectly aware of the role of the school, and, in general, of the education and training system: "One of the stereotypes existing within the training system is that of an alleged poor attitude of female students towards scientific disciplines, which leads to a gender gap in these areas both within the course of study and in the choices of orientation first and then professional ", we read in the presentation of the project. On the sidelines of the initiative there was also a competition for schools, among whose thematic areas the one dedicated to the "Scientists of yesterday and today" stood out. Initiative replicated also in 2019. In viale Trastevere the attention on the topic, therefore, seems to be there. And we hope so, given that the problem, given in hand, is more than concrete.
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