This week, a group of female academics, researchers, and postgraduate students from the Faculty of Sciences of the Universidad de Chile met to celebrate the First Anniversary of the Female Network of Researchers and Academics of Sciences. This initiative is part of the “Ciencia 2030 program”, which has, as one of its objectives, to generate spaces for meeting, collaboration, and reflection to promote the participation and leadership of women in this area and jointly contribute to society from their disciplines, in a comprehensive and participatory way.
The meeting, assisted by the rector of the Universidad de Chile, Rosa Devés, and the undersecretary for Women and Gender Equality, Luz Vidal Huiriqueo, was also attended by the three professors from the Department of Physics (DFC-UChile): Denisse Pastén, Francisca Guzmán, and Orfa Reyes who, jointly with their peers, defined the work lines and activities for 2023.
Denisse Pastén, assistant professor at DFC-UChile, PhD in Physics, member of the Planets Research Group, and expert in the study of earthquakes through the use of complex systems tools, said: “This gender-focused project seeks to reduce the gap in STEM careers. Within this framework, last year, Isabel Marchant (Coordinator of Ecosystems and Gender of the Ciencia 2030 Program) began to contact several academics from our Faculty to tell us about the existence of this focus and ask us what activities we could carry out. This year we have held talks, public speaking workshops, recognition of the career of several academics from the Faculty of Science, and welcome events for postgraduate students, among others.”
Pastén indicates that: “the network has been significant, since we are only three female physicists in the Department of Physics, and having meetings with academic colleagues where we can share challenges, ideas and experiences with them, have made me feel accompanied in this process of opening paths for more women to reach the Department of Physics”, she said. “Above all, it is important for our students, for them to see us, to see that we are together, that we support and accompany each other and that we do not have to be in the same department to do it.”
