"The world needs science, and science needs women and girls"

*Letter published on February 11, 2022

Letter to the editor of the newspaper El Mostrador from Nayat Sánchez-Pi, director of Inria Chile

Dear Director:

This February 11 is the "International Day of Women and Girls in Science", with the slogan "Women and Girls in Science: Agents of Change". The world needs science, and science needs women and girls, and this date is an opportunity for this message to go beyond good intentions.              

With climate change looming and the Covid-19 pandemic showing how vulnerable we are, the world is in a moment of crisis in which it cannot afford to waste all the potential that women have.              

Women can fill a myriad of roles and enhance co-creation in collaborative environments, foster the drive to innovate and give teams confidence in their capabilities.              

However, worldwide, only one in five Artificial Intelligence professionals is a woman; we tend to receive fewer research grants and only 12% of the members of national scientific academies are women. In Chile, in the ICT area, female participation is 5%.

There were relevant signals such as the National Gender Equality Policy for Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation; and the Regional Alliance for the Digitalization of Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. The first initiative seeks, through 30 actions, for Chile to achieve gender parity in science, technology, knowledge and innovation (STKI) by 2030.     

There are eight years left and much to do; science and technology needs women and girls to empower teams, since those made up of professionals of both genders have a higher degree of problem solving, and higher rates of productivity and innovation.