Team:BUAP Mexico/Human Practices
Introduction
Over time, women have fought for equality between men and women, starting with the vote, being able to study, work, among many others. Currently in Mexico this issue has become more relevant, since there is still a certain sector of society that does not share what was written previously. And what does a science contest have to do with this? Simple, we will talk about women in science and the obstacles they have had to go through or that they are going through to achieve their goal. According to CONACYT (National Council for Science and Technology in Mexico) currently in the SNI (National Research System), women represent the 37%, there are 10,683 scientists out of the total of 28,630 members of the registry, while in 2000, women accounted the 33%, there were 5919 scientists out of a total of 17,637 . Similarly, in a statement, UNAM said that in the 1984-2016 period, the number of researchers in the National System of Researchers (SNI) increased from 1,396 to 25,072. Of the first total, 1,343 (81.9 percent) were male, and 253 (18.1 percent) female. AMC (Mexican Academy of Sciences) data of February 2018 indicate that in its membership of scientists in areas of exact sciences (which includes astronomy, physics, engineering, mathematics, chemistry and geosciences) there are 1,117 men against 194 women. Continue talking about the AMC, in Natural Sciences, which includes agro-science, biology and medicine, there were 639 scientists and 260 female scientists; while in Social Sciences there were 194 of the first group and 94 of the second and in Humanities 145 researchers versus 136 researchers. At UNAM (National Autonomous University of Mexico), emeritus professors and researchers represent only 12% of a total. Meanwhile, at the National College, an institution born with the intention of grouping the most outstanding artists, scientists and writers of Mexico, there have been only four women as members in the 75 years that it has existed. In the case of the state of Puebla, of the total number of researchers recognized by the SNI, 65.4% corresponds to the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) and the rest collaborate in other public and private higher education institutions. On the other hand, the number of women researchers in the SNI who collaborate in the BUAP is 470, while in 2010 they were 297. Of that group of national researchers attached to the BUAP, 19.1% are Candidates, 56% are located in Level I; 17% in Level II; and 7.7% in Level III. Nationally this distribution is very similar and is expressed as follows: 19% are Candidates; 54.2%, Level I; 17%, Level II; and 8.5%, Level III. The BUAP has consolidated an internal system of recognition of its researchers through the Register of Researchers of the Vice Rectory of Research and Postgraduate Studies, in which 707 members participate, of which 281 are women; that is, 39.74% of the academics registered in said registry belong to the female sex. We are talking about statistics and prominent and important research centers in Mexico because we consider it relevant to show an introduction on how the situation of science in Mexico is and because, as future research or women belonging to this field, we consider it important to enter and study the reasons for the causes of inequality in Mexico.
Motivation
Our work is not only limited to statistics, but to a reflection of what women actually go through science. Many of them throughout history had to fight against the stereotypes imposed by society and men in science, where they made sure to leave behind women in the shade, which led them to hide to acquire knowledge or be relegated, despite his important contributions to sciences. As an example, we have Albert Einstein's wife: Mileva Marić. This woman was a physical and mathematical Serbian, however, at that time, those careers were only studied by men, so her father had to ask for a special permission for her to study. Today we can know part of its history, thanks to the book “El nobel and the showgirl” of Nativel Preciado where he describes that both exchanged letters which were mentioned as collaborators of various works among them one about the relative movement. Despite this, she did not get any recognition about all these works. However, there are hopeful emblematic cases: Marie Curie, twice Nobel Prize (1903 of Physics and 1911 of Chemistry) and first woman to obtain that award for her research on radiation, her daughter Irene Joliot Curie, who in 1935 won the same recognition for his work in synthesizing radiation, Rosalind Franklin and his experiments in the discovery of DNA structure, Jane Goodall and his contributions in chimpanzee behavior as well as Lynn Margulis and his theory of cellular origin, Barbara Mcclintock who discovered in in the 40s and 50s, the existence of DNA fragments that are capable of changing their position on a chromosome and that causes nearby genes to become active or inactive. However, she received a Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology until 1983, due to the ideas they had at that time.
Development and supporting research
The scientific field has historically been one of the most relegated in terms of gender equality. Mexico is no exception, and although in recent years it has made some significant progress, the inequality in this area is still worrying.
How do we know that inequality in science exists in Mexico?
Unfortunately, there is no record of these types of cases and that may be due to different factors, of which we will limit ourselves to two: do not exist or have not been reported. To obtain this information, we will focus on interviewing researchers and collecting data from women who are not yet in this area.
We decided to interview two important areas for us, in which we are at the intermediate and transition point: groups of female professors and doctors at the university and groups of teenagers prior to a professional education start.
The reason we decided to work with these two case groups was because: We could collect information from people already experienced in the area, knowledgeable about the problems and with an outstanding track record in science. We could gather information from teenagers who had expectations or possibly a vague idea of what this world of science consisted of and that allowed us to help them broaden their horizons with jobs like this.
The first interviews we conducted were focused on female doctors from both our university and the Tecnologico de Monterrey in Chihuahua, the latter one conducted by the Tec-Chihuahua team.
The first interviews aimed to gather information in relation to the experience of female doctors belonging to the scientific field which have stood out for their interest, passion and trajectory in science, all of them, it should be emphasized, teachers, with an academic degree of doctorate (phD).
Results
Doctors interviews
The interviews conducted here and shown to the female doctors contained questions without a sequential order, since the way they were posed depended on the free sequence that the context gave and the interaction with the interviewee, so they do not resemble those presented in the questionnaire. The advantage of this procedure allowed us the possibility of not limiting the spontaneous responses of the interviewees, thus obtaining the fundamental and specific information about the concept of themselves, as well as their condition and identity.
All these questions were asked with the necessary permission and respect towards the interviewees, complying with the specifications and requirements necessary for the creation of an environment of trust and comfort. These interviews were conducted in their work areas.
This sought to obtain qualitative data shown below.
According to the researchers interviewed (see annex), we observe that the main factor that influences the development of women in science is social / cultural, since both society and family play an important role in the education of women and girls.
One point at which most of the scientists interviewed agree, is that the mentality of society must be expanded or changed and not put "gender" in the different careers that exist, especially those involved in the area of research or industrial. In addition to this, another limitation not only of women, but that affects the entire body of researchers is economic, which slows the development of large projects. On the other hand, most of the researchers report being interested in science while in university and fortunately they have not suffered any kind of inequality or labor injustice due to being a woman.
Girls Interview
Interviews with middle and high school girls could not be asked because we were denied permission in the schools we had planned, however, we suggest the following dynamics for other team who would like to work this subject too.
The questions should consisted equally of a multiple-choice questionnaire with subparagraphs of yes and not as an answer for a more organized analysis and statistical arrangement of the data.
In question (3) that refers to the social sciences, these include economics, political science, geography, demography, human ecology, psychology, sociology, semiology, anthropology, archeology, history and linguistics.
These interviews should be conducted to learn about the context of girls in secondary education studies, close to the entrance of education at university level. We suggest to give sheets with the questions to speed up the activity and gather the information in the fastest and most efficient way.
Link with an expert
For the realization of these human practices we have the support of MS. Xochitl Arteaga Villamil, an expert in the area of biology, philosophy of science and defender of women's rights which was a great guide and support for the writing of both the writing and the focus of the interviews and the solution proposed by the team. We met with her on multiple occasions to review our work and she was a great collaborator in the final focus of our women in science themes.
From the results and conclusions obtained, what we propose is to make a reform of certain articles such as: 5 and 36, since these are not explicit enough in the role of women in science. That is why we decided to go with the lawyer Osvaldo Sastré Gómez to illustrate with his vast knowledge in this area.
This idea surged because of the lack of information and norms that we found about the paper of women in science, a situation that, considering our country, must be observed.
The legal margin initiative drafted by the lawyer Osvaldo Sastré Gómez is in the annex with the title: Gender Equity Initiative.
Solution
The team proposes two solutions, the first one, already mentioned previously, which is our legal proposal on the regulation of women's equity in the scientific field. The second is a solution based on the second problem we find: the social sphere.
The real question is how to interpret and solve this? It is clearly difficult to solve, but the team proposes certain dynamics and activities that can be carried out to eradicate or try to reduce this factor.
change of mentality and individual struggle as women.
dissemination workshops on the role of women in science
workshops and talks on women's motivation in this area.
Conclusions
It is generally assumed that science has been made by men. History, with exceptions, has marginalized the collective memory of women scientists.
The preferences of women remain related to the traditional idea of training as an extension of the domestic, where the compatibility of the role of wife and mother with that of the professional is sought; then, by strongly associating professional training with gender stereotypes, expectations, search and choice are defined based on its compatibility with the feminine and masculine roles that we have built socioculturally.
The conditions in which the scientists work in Mexico are a reason for study including the impact of being a woman and being a scientist in the family, as well as innumerable factors of the socio-political, economic and cultural environment such as the performance of scientific work in the capital of the Republic or in the various entities, in research centers or institutions of higher education, in private or public universities, in international organizations, etc.
The purpose of this work was to investigate the state that keeps the participation of women scientists and researchers in Mexico, in order to propose actions that consolidate their development as promoters of knowledge and drivers of scientific innovation in the country.
The first section of this paper presents the data provided by organizations and programs dedicated to promoting scientific and technological research in the country, such as the Mexican Academy of Sciences, the Women in Science Program and the SNI. On the other hand, the participation of women researchers from the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla (BUAP) was presented, all of this according to the purpose of our project and also the impact and scope that we wanted to show: women in science.
Women in science as a new era, as a new and real proposal, as a problem and also as a solution.