Models for encouraging girls to get interested in science

Frame of the third video of the series "Girls who broke a glass ceiling looking at the sky", of the IAC and the FECYT. Credit: Inés Bonet (IAC).
Frame of the third video of the series "Girls who broke a glass ceiling looking at the sky", of the IAC and the FECYT. Credit: Inés Bonet (IAC).
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 “As a girl I thought that I wanted to be a singer, a dancer, or a teacher. But the truth is that I had no other type of models” explains IAC researcher Carme Gallart Gallart, who participated, together with the engineer Dora Viera Curbelo, and the astrophysicists Alicia López Oramas, and Melania Cubas Armas in this new chapter of the audiovisual series “Girls who broke a glass roof while looking at the sky”

This series of videos, now into its third chapter, is aimed at encouraging young girls to choose scientific and technical careers, while publicizing the work which the women astrophysicists and engineers who work at the IAC are doing. The idea is to continue the series by explaining what they wanted to do when young, what they studied at the university, and what are they doing now, and in this way presenting alternative models for those who have not yet made their choice in higher education.

The data which were presented last November in Gender in Physics Day in La Laguna showed that equilibrium in this field is possible. According to the International Astronomical Union (IAU) the fraction of professional women astronomers and astrophysicists in Argentina is 41%, which according the Law of Equality represents equilibrium between men and women. However Spain is well below this figure, with a value of some 21%, well above Sweden (16%) and Switzerland (15%). These figures point to the need to promote scientific vocations from an early age.

The videos in this series belong to the project “The Return of Henrietta Leavitt: from school to a research career via the theatre”. They have been developed by the Unit of Communication and Scientific Culture (UC3) of the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (IAC) in collaboration with the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT).

Technical details:

Management: Carmen del Puerto Varela

Direction: Inés Bonet

Coordination: Laura Calero Hernández, Silvia Granja González y Alejandra Rueda Moral

Camera: Inés Bonet Márquez y Daniel López.

Computer 3D graphics: Gabriel Pérez Díaz, Walt Feimer, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, HST – STScI y Claudio Dalla Vecchia.

Solar images: SST/IAC/UiO.

Timelapse photography: Daniel López.

Music: Black Mirror.

Other press releases:

Links to chapter I:

Links to chapter II:

News type
Press release
General public
Communications media

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