=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3607/paper16
|storemode=property
|title=Promotion of research: A cornerstone of the Latin American open chair Matilda and the women in engineering
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3607/paper16.pdf
|volume=Vol-3607
|authors=Carolina Garvizu,Susana Vargas,Sonia H. Contreras-Ortiz,Silvana Montoya-Noguera
|dblpUrl=https://dblp.org/rec/conf/lawcc/GarvizuVCM23
}}
==Promotion of research: A cornerstone of the Latin American open chair Matilda and the women in engineering==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3607/paper16.pdf
Promotion of research: A cornerstone of the Latin American
open chair Matilda and the women in engineering
Carolina Garvizu1, Susana Vargas2, Sonia H. Contreras-Ortiz3 and Silvana Montoya-Noguera4
1
Centro de Investigaciòn en Agua, Energía y Sostenibilidad - Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo, La Paz,
Bolivia
2
Universidad Católica Boliviana San Pablo, La Paz, Bolivia
3
Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar, Cartagena de Indias, Colombia
4
Universidad EAFIT, Medellín, Colombia
Abstract
This article addresses the current challenge of promoting the incursion of women in the field
of science and technology to achieve gender equality to comply with Sustainable Development
Goal 5. In 2020, the Latin American Open Chair Matilda and the Women in Engineering (CAL
Matilda, for its acronym in Spanish) was created thanks to a joint initiative of three engineering
organizations: the Colombian Association of Faculties of Engineering ACOFI, the Federal
Council of Deans of Engineering CONFEDI from Argentina, and the Latin American and
Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions LACCEI. CAL Matilda is an academic
space that promotes vocations in engineering in girls and female teenagers through the
collective construction of knowledge, teaching, research, reflection, and different dynamic
activities. Within CAL Matilda, the research committee has impacted the inclusion and
visibility of research around the gender perspective in engineering by developing more than
fifty academic activities with the collaboration of 23 universities and member institutions.
Research serves as an incentive for the future, encouraging the enhancement of capacities
among women engaged in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics
(STEM).
Keywords 1
Women in STEM, women in research, SDGs, CAL Matilda, Latin America.
1. Introduction
The disciplines in STEM areas are key to facing some of the main challenges of the 2030 Agenda
for Sustainable Development, from improving health and the fight against climate change to gender
equality at all levels (Bello, 2020). Various studies refer to the subrepresentation of women in scientific,
technological, engineering, and mathematical careers (Shapiro and Sax, 2011; Smith, 2011; Sáinz,
2017; Reinking and Martin, 2018), which was and will be a global concern that needs to be solved. It
is in this sense that Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5, "Gender Equality," develops the guidelines
for future actions to shorten these gaps.
In 2020, the Latin American Open Chair Matilda and the Women in Engineering (CAL Matilda)
was born, from a joint initiative of the Colombian Association of Engineering Faculties ACOFI, the
1
Proceedings XV Congress of Latin American Women in Computing 2023, October 16–20, 2023, La Paz, Bolivia
EMAIL: vgarvizu@ucb.edu.bo (A. 1); svargas@ucb.edu.bo (A. 2); scontreras@utb.edu.co (A. 3); smontoyan@eafit.edu.co (A. 4)
ORCID: 0000-0002-4191-0874 (A. 1); 0000-0003-1686-3727 (A. 2); 0000-0003-2461-2100 (A. 3); 0000-0003-2490-9107 (A. 4)
©️ 2023 Copyright for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
CEUR Workshop Proceedings (CEUR-WS.org)
CEUR
ceur-ws.org
Workshop ISSN 1613-0073
Proceedings
Federal Council of Engineering Deans from Argentina CONFEDI and the Latin American and
Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions LACCEI, establishing itself as an academic space
for debate, reflection, the collective construction of knowledge, teaching, and research, and carrying
out dynamic activities to promote equal rights, opportunities, and spaces for women in academic and
professional fields and the promotion of vocations for engineering in girls and female teenagers in Latin
America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Within its organization, CAL Matilda has six committees: Mentoring, Communication, Vocations,
Professional Practice, Education, and Research. Each of the committees, and therefore the chair, has
institutional and individual members from different countries in the region, mostly Argentina, Bolivia,
Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, and Ecuador. The member institutions are public and private universities.
This international presence facilitates the union of forces and planning of joint activities in favor of the
stated objectives.
The topic that CAL Matilda addresses is complex since it combines a cultural imprint and a
contextual paradigm where multiple dimensions and factors sustain the persistence of gender inequality
in engineering fields. Consequently, invigorating and promoting changes require the generation of
knowledge that provides the bases for the actions to be carried out, the best path being research.
The Research Committee (RC) aims to investigate with scientific rigor topics relevant to CAL-
Matilda that allow the visibility and social appropriation of knowledge for equal rights, opportunities,
and spaces for women in the academic and professional fields and for the promotion of vocations for
engineering. It is in this sense that all the activities of RC are focused on the promotion and visibility
of the academic initiatives of women in engineering.
2. Methodology
To focus efforts on promoting research as the central axis of CAL Matilda, RC articulates the
following specific objectives:
● To design and implement research projects aligned with the objectives of CAL Matilda.
● To organize and manage the monitoring of research projects carried out by members of CAL
Matilda
● To generate spaces for the visibility and social appropriation of knowledge based on the
research developed.
● To collaborate and articulate actions with the other committees in the achievement of the
objectives of the organization.
These specific objectives are developed based on four strategic axes that are observed in Figure 1,
which through their interaction, enhance the impacts of CAL Matilda.
The CI has three coordinators who chair the biweekly meetings to plan and follow up on the
activities. Additionally, four leaders promote actions to meet each of the committee's objectives.
Equal rights,
opportunities, and
spaces for women in the
academic field
Equal rights,
Promotion of vocations
opportunities and spaces
for engineering in young
for women in the
people in LAC
professional field
Promotion of vocations
for engineering in girls in
LAC
Figura 1: The RC strategic axes within CAL Matilda
2.1. Equal rights, opportunities, and spaces for women in the
academic field
It is well known that in recent years in the global context, actions have increased around being able
to improve the education of women and thus generate equal opportunities between both genders. As
established by Blat (2012), offering the same education to both sexes is a necessary and sufficient
condition for the individual potential of women and men to be stimulated and developed.
That is why RC encourages the generation of scenarios where equal opportunities are promoted in
the academic field, convinced that the training and empowerment of women, mainly in engineering, is
the path that will strengthen the female presence in these areas.
The RC establishment fosters the creation of these important spaces to encourage women in
engineering to consolidate collaborative work as part of a network. Being one of the first steps to
achieve equal rights, opportunities, and spaces in each member institution.
2.2. Equal rights, opportunities, and spaces for women in the
professional field
Previous studies reveal that even today, women in STEM areas face a large number of challenges in
the professional field, being in predominantly male environments such as gender stereotypes, obstacles
to ascend to decision-making positions, salary gap, lack of mentors, harassment, bullying, and
difficulties balancing work and family life, especially when there are young children, family members
with disabilities or older adults in their care. For this reason, it is important to promote inclusion and
equality policies in institutions, strengthen women's networks, mentoring programs and make women
in engineering visible.
The RC of CAL Matilda establishes spaces to discuss these issues and to be able to generate
strategies in the medium and long term, which promotes women in the professional field, highlighting
their training and capabilities. It is also important to point out that the RC establishes spaces for the
visibility of the trajectory of outstanding female engineers to motivate future generations in the
incursion of various engineering specialties.
2.3. Promotion of vocations for engineering in girls and young people
in LAC
One of the determinants for career selection in female teenagers is previous experiences related to
courses, games, and recreational and extracurricular activities. Cheryan et al. (2017) mentioned that
girls usually have less early experience in STEM than boys, and this is one of the causes for them to
feel that they are not sufficiently prepared and give up choosing these careers. Within the RC, several
university initiatives have been shared to promote engineering in boys and girls, such as courses and
workshops related to STEM skills, like programming, science, and robotics. In this way, they contribute
to the main objective of the strategic axis related to early motivation for research and development
(R&D), fundamental pillars of engineering.
Also, various studies show that as girls grow, they lose interest in STEM. As pointed out by
González et al. (2021) in the study STEAM+Gender: A proposal to strengthen initial education with
equity. Up to eighth grade, 74% of girls express interest in STEAM areas, but only 0.4% of adolescents
choose careers associated with these areas. At present, many studies seek to understand this problem,
to propose strategies to increase the representation of women in STEM areas, since greater participation
can have a positive impact on the economic and social development of a country. According to Bello
(2020), gender equality has a strong impact on gross domestic product per capita, which implies that
reducing the gender gap in STEM education could improve the quality of life of people in general. That
is why the role of academic institutions is so important when supporting and encouraging initiatives
such as CAL Matilda.
3. Results
The CAL Matilda RC established a 2021-2023 Strategic Plan currently being applied. Activities and
actions of RC fit with the methodology and objectives of the committee. They can be open to the general
public or internal for CAL Matilda. In the RC, an agenda is maintained that allows the generation of
spaces to promote research in the CAL institutions. Some of the activities carried out are mentioned
below:
Workshops: allow the generation of spaces for co-creation among the committee members.
Workshops have been held such as: "What are people talking about in #8M in the activities of the Latino
America Faculties of Engineering?" and "Design and Co-Creation of pieces for the dissemination of
research results."
Seminars: In December 2021, the seminar was held: "Matilda investigates and transforms
panoramas" in which an overview of the gender gap in engineering programs at Latin American
universities and research on equality issues was presented. gender in engineering. Subsequently, work
groups were held to address the following question: How is it possible in the academic field of the
Faculty of Engineering to articulate university policies to contribute to SDG 5 and train in skills with a
gender perspective that promote the participation of women? women in engineering careers? As a tool
for collecting ideas, Padlet was used. more than 100 people participated in this event.
Symposiums: In October 2022, the First Latin American Research and Innovation Symposium of
Women in Engineering (I SIILMI) was held to generate a space for communication and construction
for exchange and articulation around the community of CAL-Matilda actors. and the Faculties of
Engineering around research aimed at equal rights, opportunities, and spaces for women in engineering
and the promotion of vocations for engineering in girls and young people.
As part of the organizing committee, professionals from STEM and related areas from Argentina,
Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico participated. The target audience reached by the Symposium
included researchers and innovators in the topic "Gender and engineering," teachers of STEM areas and
pre-university levels, students belonging to research groups, and CAL Matilda members.
The main topic axes of the SIILMI were: Equity of rights, opportunities, and spaces in the academic
and labor field and the promotion of vocations for Engineering in girls and young people of the region.
The selected works were presented synchronously and asynchronously using short videos and forums
that promoted the interaction of authors and attendees. In addition to keynote lectures, the Symposium
included Debate Sessions on Vocations, Professional and Academic topics on its agenda, evidencing
that the topic of Women in Engineering is a growing field of study, research, and development in Latin
America.
The knowledge generated in the synchronous activities allowed us to know and analyze the situation
in the Faculties of Engineering, evidencing the need for: the construction of gender equality policies,
the mainstreaming of the gender perspective in competency-based training, and establishing research
methodologies on the subject.
One of the main contributions of SIILMI to the committee's work was the identification of
institutions that carry out research and innovation on the subject, making this the basis for future joint
actions in Latin America and the Caribbean for the benefit of gender equality. in engineering. In the
symposium, 38 papers were presented, 259 people registered, 153 people participated in the
asynchronous activities, and 201 attended the synchronous activities.
Another activity with interesting results took place in Bolivia at the Faculty of Engineering of the
San Pablo Bolivian Catholic University, which consisted of an essay contest called "My path in
Engineering," whose target audience was students and former female students of the Faculty. The essays
sent by the contestants included experiences from childhood where it was evidenced that the media,
advertising, and school are not the main motivators to dream of a career in STEM, but rather families,
who, by showing support and trust, encourage them to venture into this field when they are going to
start university.
What was expressed by the participants of the contest was used as feedback in the Faculty of
Engineering, considering aspects such as the lack of gender equality in the publicity actions of STEM
programs. Since it reinforces gender stereotypes that STEM careers are associated with men, it is
unlikely that women visualize themselves in these careers, which rules out the possibility of considering
doing it for a long time or as a form of work.
In addition to the initiatives described, there were various activities carried out in the member
institutions, where the members of the committee participated directly and indirectly, which can be
summarized in the following table:
Tabla Nº1
2021-2023 Activities
Activity CI CAL-Matilda Impact Quantity
Rol
Events Organization International 4
audience,
professionals,
academics and
students
Courses Assistants Strengthening 8
training in W-STEM,
SDGs and the gender
gap.
Workshops Organization Products applicable to 3
various institutions
Conference Presenters Participation in 13
presentations conferences,
presentations, talks,
symposiums and
exhibitions.
Projects Participants Research, training, 13
extension and other
projects.
Publications Authors Conference 15
proceedings, book
chapters, and journal
papers
Fuente: Own elaboration based on the RC management report of CAL Matilda (2023).
The activities carried out show the synergy in the network that summons the CAL Matilda. The
collaborative enthusiasm of those who engage and contribute their dedication to this committee enables
us to exert influence across the extensive region of Latin America and the Caribbean. Many voices
come together in this committee, making a path of mentoring among peers, which through co-creation,
allows us to glimpse progress towards the objectives of CAL Matilda.
4. Future actions
Of the forthcoming actions by the RC members, the following four have been recognized as top
priority and pertinent:
● Establishment of a diagnosis of the gender gap in universities to identify the current
conditions of women's participation in the areas of training, teaching, research and extension
in Latin America and the Caribbean.
● Exposure of the real participation or incorporation of women in engineering, both study and
professional practice, based on statistical data.
● Diagnosis of institutional policies and strategies to promote safe study and work
environments for women.
● Generation of knowledge about the profile of women engineers in Latin America and the
Caribbean, using the CAL-Matilda books as an object of study and creating material and
events that promote said profiles as references for girls and women concerning STEM
vocations.
These tasks address key issues related to gender equality in engineering education and research and
will provide information and concrete actions to foster the participation and success of women in this
field. By focusing on the gender gap, current conditions, the promotion of lead authors, the real visibility
of women engineers, and institutional policies, the foundations will be laid to promote a significant
change toward gender equality in engineering.
5. Conclusions
The endeavors undertaken by CAL Matilda's Research Committee (RC) have effectively reinforced
the cooperative work and initiatives of member institutions, all directed towards amplifying women's
presence in STEM fields. This achievement has been facilitated through a common research
methodology for the creation of networks and the provision of platforms for sharing and disseminating
these actions across member universities in diverse countries, thereby magnifying their specific
impacts. Moreover, the strategic identification of high-impact objectives has led to the creation of
community forums and opportunities to spotlight women in engineering, paving a promising trajectory
for the emergence of upcoming female engineers.
It is also worth highlighting the identified necessity to strengthen motivational activities aimed at
young girls and female teenagers in primary and secondary school to cultivate their STEM skills. This
imperative arises from the overarching goal of enhancing the education of both young boys and girls in
gender equity, with a focus on showcasing their proficiency in attaining equal opportunities.
From the start, the RC members have engaged in a wide range of activities with an international
focus, totaling over 40 initiatives as part of the 2021-2023 strategic plan. These efforts have made a
significant impact, reaching the university communities of all member institutions within CAL Matilda.
While the efforts aimed at fostering research-related activities have yielded noteworthy results, the
potential to reinforce and broaden the collaborative network with other committees of CAL Matilda
remains a challenge.
6. Acknowledgments
The acknowledgements go to the Executive Committee of the Latin American Open Chair: Matilda
and Women in Engineering, as well as to each of the thematic committees: Vocations, Professional
Practice, Mentoring, Education, Communication and Research.
Gratitude is extended to all the institutions of the Chair for embracing the essential task of promoting
research with a gender perspective, supporting the initiatives of the CAL Matilda Research Committee.
Furthermore, sincere appreciation is directed towards every woman who ventures on the path of
Engineering, serving as a compelling role model for young girls and female teenagers across Latin
America and the Caribbean.
7. References
[1] A. Bello, LAS MUJERES EN CIENCIAS, TECNOLOGÍA, INGENIERÍA Y
MATEMÁTICAS EN AMÉRICA LATINA Y EL CARIBE Organización de las Naciones
Unidas - Mujeres. (2020)
[2] Shapiro, C. & Sax, L. (2011). Major selection and persisten- ce for women in STEM. New
Directions for Institutional Re- search, 152, 5-18.
[3] Smith, E. (2011). Women into science and engineering? Gendered participation in higher
education STEM subjects. British Educational Research Journal, 37(6), 993-1014.
[4] Sáinz, M. (Coord.). (2017). Se buscan ingenieras, físicas y tec- nólogas. ¿Por qué no hay más
mujeres STEM? Barcelona: Ariel.
[5] Reinking, A., & Martin, B. (2018). The Gender Gap in STEM Fields: Theories, Movements,
and Ideas to Engage Girls in STEM. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 7(2),
148-153. doi: 10.7821/naer.2018.7.271
[6] A. Blat Gimeno (1994). Informe sobre la igualdad de oportunidades educativas entre los sexos.
Revista Iberoamericana de Educación Número 6, 1994. URL:
https://red.pucp.edu.pe/ridei/files/2012/06/120609.pdf
[7] Cheryan, S., Ziegler, S. A., Montoya, A. K., & Jiang, L. (2017). Why are some STEM fields
more gender balanced than others?. Psychological bulletin, 143(1), 1.
[8] A.Gonzales, M.Vargas, R.Vieyra, D. Acevedo, A. Pachón, A. Molano, S. Ruiz (2021).
STEAM+Género: Una propuesta para fortalecer la educación inicial con equidad.
URL:https://bdigital.uexternado.edu.co/server/api/core/bitstreams/531c81b1-db91-4459-
b5bd-e576ebd6d093/content
[9] S. Contreras, S. Montoya, S. García. Informe de gestión del CI de la CAL Matilda (2022).