WOMEN IN SCIENCE: DISCLOSING POSSIBILITIES OF SCIENTIFIC CAREERS WITH SCHOLARS

Abstract

Women made great contributions for scientific development, but still remaining the invisibility and lack in disclosing the researches realized by them. Noticing how the difference between men and women scientists still prevailing, especially in STEM areas (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), the Physiology Research Group of UNIPAMPA idealized actions with the aim to disclosing with high school public school students, the researches made by women in the city of Uruguaiana, Rio Grande do Sul State/Brazil, emphasizing theirs contribuitions to science. To realize this initiative, three women professors of Federal University of Pampa, which acting in STEM area, were invited to participate in this proposal. The activity was divided in two steps: the first was realized at the high school, initianting with a brief presentation of the professor’s trajectory; after that we made a moment of dialogue with the students; the second step happened at the university, where the students visited the professor’s laboratories. The research sample was composed: in the first step by 49 students (27 girls and 22 boys), 15-18-old, and; in the second step by 42 students (22 girls and 20 boys). During the first part of school’s activities, to verify the student’s knowledge and position about the thematic, a questionnaire was applied before and after the activity. In the first evaluation, only 2 students (4%) known quote a women scientist’s name; the others 47 students (96%) left the question in blank. After the action, the percent of students which are able to respond this question increased to 84%. In the end of the second part, another questionnaire was applied, containing questions about the interest and opinion of the activities realized in the laboratories. The final score given by the participants to the visit, considering a scale from 0 to 10, was 9. Our results emphasized the young’s unfamiliarity about the female participation in science and the potential of disclosure actions to arousing their interest for scientific research.