SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Feb. 11 (EUROPE PRESS) –
60% of the research team at the Canarian Institute for Agricultural Research (ICIA) is made up of women, which makes it a benchmark entity in scientific research and in matters of gender equality.
The biologist Pilar Méndez is one of the main researchers of this institution and, after a lifetime developing professionally at the ICIA, she assures that the center is an example of gender equality in the future of scientific research.
Méndez began her career at the Canarian Institute of Agricultural Research as a fellow once she finished her Biology Degree at the University of La Laguna and is about to retire.
“The ICIA gave me the opportunity to train as a researcher and be able to keep abreast of all the innovations that occur in my field and in others in which my scientific colleagues work,” she says in a note from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands.
The researcher points out that “science has been one of the most discriminatory fields against women, where their achievements have been made invisible throughout history”, but the ICIA “is the exception” and considers that, in that sense, ” is a cutting-edge center for gender equality”.
ONLY ONE WOMAN IN 1980
“When I started at the center in 1980, all the researchers were men and I remember that there was only one woman, a powerful woman, who had the same category as the rest of my colleagues,” says Méndez. In addition, she highlights that she always found herself equally valued in the research team.
The scientist is confident that “society is becoming aware of the value of women, but not everything is done yet, even sometimes among my own classmates I find some reluctance”.
For this reason, she believes that “there are still many barriers to overcome” and highlights that “science is one of the most important fields that have been able and can promote the role of female researchers and eradicate the gender gap”.
In his opinion, “it is an exciting career, you have to have a method, a discipline and you have to be passionate about it”.
Therefore, it encourages young women to fulfill their dreams, becoming scientists or achieving success in the profession that motivates them.
EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES
The Minister of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries of the Government of the Canary Islands, Alicia Vanoostende, claims the ‘World Day of Women and Girls in Science’ with the aim of achieving gender equality in the scientific and research field.
In this sense, it highlights the fact that 60% of the ICIA research team is made up of women, but insists on reinforcing and promoting their participation in the field, since it is still led by men.
On the other hand, according to statistics from the Canary Islands Agency for Research, Innovation and Information Society of the Government of the Canary Islands (ACIISI), in 2021 around 60% of university students in the Canary Islands were women, but in scientific and technological careers they They did not reach 30%”.
In this sense, the biologist Pilar Méndez considers that this figure is due to the fact that personal preferences are what motivate women to choose their professional path. However, she points out that there is currently equality of opportunity in access to training.
Full and equal participation in science has not always been within the reach of women, but today it is unthinkable that they do not participate in the green, digital and feminist transformation based on research, technologies and innovation in which women society is immersed, they point out from the Executive.
