Making stories visible from specific data, opening paths to new research, dimensioning contexts based on local data and disseminating actions that seek to reduce the gender gap in technology are just some of the possibilities that open up from the new data visualization project presented by Chicas en Tecnología (CET) during an online event on October 15. “Exploratory visualization. The place of women on the national university map.” meets all open and public databases generated by Chicas en Tecnología to conduct various quantitative and qualitative research on the presence of women in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics) disciplines. Transforming this dataset -which covers undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses at all universities in Argentina- into accessible and organized information makes it possible for different actors in society to consult, disseminate and expand it, since a platform that allows collaborative work was used.
The data visualization project is one of the ways for information to circulate in society and encourage decision-making and the creation of public policies to reduce the gender gap in the technology sector. Carolina Hadad, Co-founder of Chicas en Tecnología, led the project together with a group of specialists and at the presentation event she shared some of the possible scope of the visualizations: “The data set we use is very rich. From Chicas en Tecnología we decided to focus on gender issues, but other analyses can be made, for example, on the number of enrollments in undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate courses, or to analyze the virtual and face-to-face modalities, what happens with the public and private systems. The visualizations we make are interactive and the code that reads, analyzes and visualizes the data is visible and public”. Romina Colman, a data journalist who has accompanied the organization since its first initiatives in Research, She referred to the importance of transforming data into advocacy: “When there are educational policies that seek to increase the presence of women in technology, how do enrollments respond after these policies are implemented? We have to start seeing the impacts of these policies but also start making decisions with data. And think that behind these bases there are stories that need to be told and that data is the perfect excuse to achieve changes in society”.
For the presentation event, the organization invited representatives from the public sector, the education sector and the media: “Journalism and people in communication roles have a key role in the challenge of putting gender issues in the technological field on the public agenda through quality, updated and accessible information. On the other hand, the public sector is the one that can generate policies to transform the current scenarios and the educational sphere is the central place where these changes must begin to be generated to build more diverse and inclusive environments based on long-term sustainable transformations”, said Julieta La Casa, from Chicas en Tecnología's Communication team, at the opening of the event.
What cannot be measured cannot be improved, For this reason, the event included a panel moderated by Melina Masnatta, Executive Director of the organization, in which people from the field of communication, academia and the public sector shared the opportunities and possibilities for advocacy on gender and diversity issues based on the publication of updated and local data. Stephanie Hindi, journalist and specialist in strategic communication, emphasized the importance of knowing the users and recipients of the information, and Florencia Tuchin, journalist specialized in sustainability and human development, highlighted the need to illustrate the data through stories: “Stories that help to make a problem visible are how we try to influence the public agenda and make an issue relevant”.
A key scenario where action must be taken to promote the inclusion of women in STEAM disciplines is academia. Sandra Giunta, Secretary of Science and Technology and Regional Studies of the National University of Jujuy shared some of the incentives they are carrying out to integrate more women into the scientific and technological system of the University and, about the research projects led by women researchers, she said: “The lines of research aimed at studying new applied technologies, research in computer science and renewable energies have grown. This scenario is complemented by the permanent availability of spaces for discussion, expression and exchange among women scientists”.
Transforming data into actions that help solve the problem of the gender gap in technology depends on the indispensable role of the public sector that can generate policies and initiatives at the national level. From the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation they shared the main axes of the National Program for Gender Equality in Science, Technology and Innovation. “We believe that part of all this that we are trying to promote has to be accompanied by a cultural change, to break with stereotypes, to make inequalities visible. It is a multiple strategy and data evidence is a part of a comprehensive policy,” said Victoria Tignino, Executive Secretary of the Program. Guillermina D'Onofrio, National Director of Programs and Competitive Projects at the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation, concluded: “It would be very desirable that we can move towards more participatory and democratic public policies. Each person should be able to analyze data and influence decision making. Data does not ensure that a reality will be changed, but it does ensure that in a discussion one can position oneself differently because one will be able to discuss learning to dialogue with diversity”.
Open data
In 2019, Girls in Technology was one of three organizations worldwide to win a scholarship of Nextjournal to perform an exploratory visualization on a set of data relevant to the community. The data visualization approach created by the organization allows people to interact with the graphs in order to focus on the information they consider most relevant. In addition, the platform uses open source graphical schemas, meaning that anyone can replicate and use them with another dataset. For example: other countries can use this proposal with local data to generate accessible information on their own situation. Whether for gender analysis or other topics, all the tools used by Chicas en Tecnología are available to be improved and shared by the public.
To know in order to transform
- 6 out of every 100 people enrolled in the university correspond to careers related to Computer Science. Only 1 of those 6 people is a woman.
- +9 out of 10 people who enroll to work in elementary and special education are women. Of those who decide to specialize in Educational Technology, 6 out of 10 are women.
- In Apparel and Textile Design, more than 95 out of every 100 people enrolled are women. Videogame design has 5 women out of every 100 enrolled.
- Computer Engineering has 1 female student out of 10.
> Access link to the visualizations:
http://bit.ly/cet-visualizacion-exploratoria
