Since 2015, theFebruary 11th was established as International Day of Women and Girls in Scienceto raise public awareness and promote greater equity of gender in the field Stem. A question that, despite the progress achieved over the years, sees in a past not so far away situations that today would seem unacceptable.
Women can be educated to do any job, but remember: a woman is not a man; It is a substitute, like plastic can replace metal.
This sentence is of the 1943 And it comes from an American guide for managers. This is how women were seen only 80 years ago. It was the period of the Second World Warwhen millions of men were at the front and the states were short of workforce, even in the Technical and scientific disciplines. To make up for this lack, campaigns launched to recruit women in traditionally male sectors, such as engineering and mathematics. Although their contribution in that period was fundamental, women in science were still considered an exception. This past, not so far away, continue to influence our choices and opportunities for women in the scientific world.
For centuries, the access of women to education was extremely limited. The only ones they could study did they do it inside conventswhere they mainly learned painting, writing and poetry, rarely the sciences. The few who managed to obtain a scientific culture were daughters, sisters or wives of scientists. Do you think that universities exist from 1088but in Italy women have obtained the right to register only for end of the nineteenth century. Until then, admission was a rare privilege, reserved for women of exceptional talent and with families willing to challenge the rules. This is the case for example of Elena Lucrezia Corner Piscopiaaccording to some, the first woman graduated in the world at the University of Padua in 1678, or Laura Bassiphysics of the eighteenth century who, thanks to his extraordinary skills, became the first woman in the world to obtain a university chair.
In many countries, however, it will be necessary to wait for the Twentieth century because access to university becomes a Law for women. Until then, science was a totally male universe and permeated by the belief of female inferiority.
Despite the difficulties, women have always found a way to leave their mark in science. The same Laura Bassi that we mentioned just above, or Emmy Noether which in the twentieth century revolutionized modern algebra, and Marie Curiethe first person to win Two Nobel prizes (1903 and 1911), just to name a few.
During the twentieth century, extraordinary women began to carve out an increasingly important space in fields such as astronomy, mathematics and chemistry. Margherita Hackfamous Italian astrophysics, often told how the openness of her family had allowed her to choose the scientific path without fear the idea of being “lower” to her colleagues men (the so -called “Matilda effect” of which several scientists were also very brilliant). This is a crucial point. It is true that today women enjoy much wider rights than a century ago, but the cultural legacy It is still present and conditions their professional path.
Today, in the scientific faculties, about the 40% Students are female, and the number continues to grow. Also in the world of researchyoung women feel more and more encouraged to enter fields that have excluded them for a long time. But if we look at the numbers of the women who reach top positionsthe percentage drops drastically. Less than 30% of the researchers comes to become an ordinary professor or to hold apical roles. Is the so -called Glass ceilingThe glass ceilingan invisible barrier that hinders the career of women without there being explicit or easily identifiable obstacles.
This genreson of a not so far past, continues to influence the present. However, the growing number of women in science, politics, sport and in many other areas is finally offering girls and young women Reference models which for centuries have missed.
