Science Ministry develops gender policy for the scientific system

In the auditorium of the Instituto Nacional, a renowned high school that is set to admit girls for the first time, Science Minister Andrés Couve, Undersecretary Carolina Torrealba and National Research and Development Agency Director Aisén Etcheverry presented a roadmap that will guide the development of a gender policy for the country’s science, technology and innovation system.

 “We have left out visions and capacities that should be drawn on because we have a diversity of knowledge and talents that should and can make contributions. We will only achieve comprehensive development if we are able to eliminate the biases that deprive us of a diverse system,” Minister Couve said as he began his remarks.

The officials explained that the goal is to build a participatory gender equity policy and plan of action containing measures that increase access and allow   female researchers to participate in the knowledge creation system under equal conditions and in safe working environments.

“Boys and girls have the same capacity to learn, but we as a society are not giving them the opportunity to learn the same things. The gender divide emerges in early childhood education and continues over the course of a child’s life, which means that women have very low representation on research teams. For example, just 17% of the centers of excellence are directed by women,” Undersecretary Carolina Torrealba stated. She presented an assessment and the first measures that the ministry will implement as part of its efforts to achieve greater equity, access and visibility for women in science.

The assessment of the inequities in the scientific system conducted over the past few months in talks with over 100 female researchers from various parts of the country reflects how gender gaps are accentuated over the course of researchers’ careers in Chile. The main data that Undersecretary Torrealba highlighted show that women hold just one third of the doctorates held in Chile and that this gap is replicated among the researchers who receive FONDECYT funding.

“This milestone is a statement of principles that sets a goal and is designed to serve as a broad invitation to participate in a process that begins today with the announcement of the first measures that will be introduced by the new National Research and Development Agency (ANID),” Undersecretary Torrealba said.

 
Initial measures for a gender policy
National Research and Development Agency (ANID) Director Aisén Etcheverry outlined the first actions that the ministry will implement in order to move towards a national knowledge production system without gender gaps and to contribute to the cultural shift necessary to avoid and correct inequities.

This progress will include creating a science, technology, knowledge and innovation data observatory with a gender focus, the implementation of actions to promote gender studies in various disciplines, promoting networks of female researchers, and implementing affirmative actions in the ANID instruments to increase gender equity.

“We are convinced and supported by the evidence: diversity generates excellence in research. That is why we are working to incorporate mechanisms that will allow us to progressively increase the amount of female leadership in centers of excellence and to move towards parity on teams through the guidelines,” Aisén Etcheverry remarked.