2024-02-09 09:38:51
To make known the role of female cancer researchers and to serve to guide the vocations of primary and secondary school students and, now especially, also of university students, is the objective of the new edition of the Association’s “KNOW THEM” campaign. Spanish Cancer Research Institute (ASEICA) on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, on February 11.
Image from ASEICA’s 2024 “Get to know them” campaign.
The fourth edition of “GET TO KNOW THEM” aims, as in the previous ones, to bring science, specifically the work of cancer researchers, to educational centers throughout Spain and the novelty this year is to increase the focus on university classrooms in Spain, putting the weight on a older students.
“We want to reach more educational centers in person, mainly universities, since that is where our detectives can better explain and guide about a scientific career and work in a laboratory. 25% of this year’s talks will be given in university centers,” comment the coordinators of the event and ASEICA-Mujer, Gema Moreno-Bueno and Patricia Sancho.
Detectives is the name given to the 340 researchers who make up an interactive map that puts a woman’s face on cancer research both in Spain and abroad.
Located in the different autonomous communities, each researcher offers information about her work and her laboratory, among other images of her personal side.
Photograph of the interactive map with the 340 cancer researchers.
Disseminate the work of cancer researchers
“We want to make being a scientist a profession that is increasingly closer and more attractive,” say the coordinators of this campaign.
The activity aims to make scientists who research cancer visible in a dynamic and interactive way and break gender stereotypes.
“Our goal is for students to discover women in basic, translational and clinical research in oncology: what they are like, how they started, how they guided their career, and how they have become leaders in their fields. “We are proud of the success of ‘CONÓCELAS’, which in just four years has established itself as one of the most outstanding events to make women scientists and their work against cancer visible,” she says. Marisol Soengas, president of ASEICA.
Throughout the different editions, this initiative has allowed us to connect virtually and in person with 20,000 students in Spain and abroad
“MEET THEM” in the world
Another novelty is the launch of “CONÓCELAS-Internacional”, a network of Spanish researchers abroad who are dedicated to cancer research. With this new working group, ASEICA wants to take another step in its internationalization and act as a link between scientists working in Spain and abroad.
“We want to promote their scientific profiles, give them visibility and put them on the map of oncological research through our map of researchers,” say Gema Moreno-Bueno and Patricia Sancho, promoters of the initiative.
In addition, it also aims to inform about aid and stays in other countries, and also about return or collaboration options in Spain, among other aspects.
In the words of the coordinators, “from CONÓCELAS we will continue working to generate new scientific vocations among the student body, but above all to make visible the role of women in science in educational centers and in society in general.”
ASEICA-Woman
Women represent more than 60% of scientific personnel in this country, however,
They are a minority in positions of high responsibility. According to ASEICA data, only two out of ten positions of responsibility in the field of cancer are led by women.
Given this situation, the Spanish Cancer Research Association has established the ASEICA-Mujer working group with the overall objective of empowering female cancer researchers in Spain.
“We work to contribute to the training of these scientists in all phases of their career, promoting their leadership capacity and acting as an agent of advocacy and social change,” says the association.
A girl observes some samples through a children’s microscope. EFE/Juana Benet
Science without women leads to biased research
For its part, the Spanish Society of Epidemiology (SEE), on the occasion of the Day of Women and Girls in Science, advocates banishing stereotypes; promote personal, family and work conciliation; include the gender perspective in teaching or promote equality in research teams as some of the keys to promoting the presence of women in research.
The SEE Working Group on Gender, Sexual Affective Diversity and Health has recalled these needs to achieve real equality of treatment and opportunities at all levels and areas of scientific careers.
The medical society warns that the non-inclusion of a greater number of women in this type of career contributes to perpetuating gender biases in all areas of research, so the results of scientific and technological advances do not benefit equitably. to the entire population, and do not contribute to the reduction of the gender gap in employment and salary that women experience.
The low presence of women in science is due, among other factors, to the persistence of gender stereotypes that are present from an early age, so girls receive messages that they are not good enough for science subjects.
Another reason is the lack of scientific references, systematically silenced throughout history, which acts by limiting the ability to imagine a career in science as a viable option for women.
According to the Women in Figures report, there are only 24% of women in grade A (professors) in universities and 26% (research professors) in Public Research Organizations (OPI).
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