Building the future of Latin America: Engaging women into STEM

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Building the future of Latin America: engaging women into STEM Funding: European Union. ERASMUS + Capacity-building in Higher Education Call for proposals EAC/A05/2017 Project type: European Coordinator: University of Salamanca Project leader: Francisco J. García Peñalvo Partners: Universidad del Norte Oulu University Politecnico di Torino Technological University Dublin Nothern Regional College Tecnológico de Monterrey Universidad de Guadalajara Universidad Técnica Federico Santa María Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso Universidad Tecnológica de Bolívar Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica Universidad de Costa Rica Universidad Técnica Particular de Loja Universidad Técnica del Norte Reference: 598923-EPP-1-2018-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP Time: 15/01/2019 to 14/01/2022 Budget: 862.268€ Abstract: The participation of Women in STEM in the Latin-America region is a very complex problem in which necessarily call for actions from different actors, such as governments, private sector, families, as well the different levels of education (since childhood to higher education). In order to make concrete contribution, Higher Education Institutions need to focus on those needs and situations in which it has certain influence for making real progress, such as: Significant minority of Women choose and access to STEM programs at tertiary level. The lowest rates appears in science and engineering programs. Data is scarce, showing a need for analytical and systematic methods, which reflect actual participation of women in STEM at HEIs. Tertiary studies with a high math component such as STEM seem to be excluded from the studies options by girls in secondary schools. Lack of bridges between public policy and institutional actions led by HEIs. In this way, and aligned to the Erasmus + Capacity Building priority for improving management and operation of higher education, in terms of access to and democratization of Higher Education, the W‐STEM Project aims at Improving strategies and mechanisms of attraction, access and guidance of Women in Latin-American STEM Higher Education programs. For achieving this main objective, W-STEM project, will Measure the gender equality in enrolment and retention rates in STEM programs. Implement Universities’ policies, strategies and organizational mechanisms for improving attraction, access and guidance at undergraduate levels in STEM programs. Promote STEM studies vocation and choice in girls and young women in secondary schools as well as guidance in the first year of the STEM program. Develop an online training package for Higher Education Institutions to implement effective strategies to enhance attraction, access and guidance of Women in STEM programs.

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Author: search.filters.author.García-Holgado, A.Author: search.filters.author.García-Ramos, L.

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    Attraction Campaigns
    (W-STEM Consortium, 2020-05-07) Camacho Díaz, A.; Peñabaena, R.; García-Ramos, L.; Pineda Padilla, A.; García-Holgado, A.
    The W-STEM ERASMUS + Capacity-building in Higher Education European Project (Ref. 598923-EPP-1-2018-1-ES-EPPKA2-CBHE-JP) had scheduled two technical meetings at the beginning of May 2020, the first one on May 4th-5th in Torino (Italy) and the second one on May 7th-8th in Dublin (Ireland). Due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, these meetings were held online, but organized by the corresponding local partners, in the scheduled dates and maintaining the meeting goals. Specifically, the Dublin meeting was centred on the attraction campaigns and the women interviews. This presentation was devoted to the attraction campaigns.
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    Gender equality in STEM programs: a proposal to analyse the situation of a university about the gender gap
    (IEEE, 2020-04-27) García-Holgado, A.; Mena, J.; García-Peñalvo, F. J.; Pascual, J.; Heikkinen, M.; Harmoinen, S.; García-Ramos, L.; Peñabaena-Niebles, R.; Amores, L.
    According to the Global Gender Gap Report 2020, most of the countries have achieved gender parity in educational attainment. Furthermore, Latin America and Europe have more women than men enrolled in tertiary education. The problem arises when those numbers are analysed by degree studies. There is a gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), with a low number of women enrolled in those programs and even lower numbers of graduates. The universities have a key role to steer new conceptions and understanding of the females in STEM. The higher education institutions have to define measures and policies to reduce the gender gap in the careers of the future. This work aims to provide a proposal to analyse the gender equality gap in STEM as a first step to define gender equality action plans focused on processes of attraction, access and retention and guidance in STEM programs. The proposal was applied in ten Latin American universities from Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Mexico, and five European universities from Finland, Ireland, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom.