I vote for science

Do you know what are:

• the unconscious biases?

• the leaking pipeline?

• invisibility vs hypervisibility?

Do you know why it is important to take your place in STEM and how to do it?

As the president of the Ingénieuses of ETS, I was invited for an interview by Isabelle Burgun on the show “Je vote pour la science” following my participation in a round table on the documentary “Picture a scientist”, at the symposium FORCES organized by the Chair for Women in Science and Engineering in Quebec. We addressed these different topics related to women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). During the show, I was lucky enough to be accompanied by Ève Langelier, professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Sherbrooke and holder of the Chair for Women in Science and Engineering in Quebec, and Camélia Dadouchi, professor in the Department of Mathematics and Industrial Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal.

So why is it important to take your place in STEM?

Because it can happen that even though we are the expert in the room, people will look at our colleague who, according to what society teaches us, looks like someone more experienced. Thus, we must break this unconscious bias by taking our place and this is not always easy to do.

And, how do you take your place in STEM?

• Politely assert yourself;

• Speak up;

• Argue respectfully;

• Demonstrate our abilities with our work.

Many believe that there are no longer problems with women in STEM today. However, we still notice several biases that further accentuate the inequality. Here are just two examples that reduce women's work:

• Being proclaimed secretary (writing the report, doing paperwork, etc.);

• Being ignored during team work (ideas not taken into account).

It is sometimes difficult to imagine the difficulties that biases can bring to women's careers. During the interview, Ève Langelier gave a very concrete example:

Normally, society teaches us that a woman is more maternal and focused on helping others, and that a leader is a go-getter and focused on results. So, when a woman is in a leadership position it creates a conflict, because if she has too many characteristics of a leader, it "clashes" with our image as a woman and if she has too many characteristics of a woman, it "clashes" with our image as a leader. Therefore, no matter what she does, there will be discomfort.

So what does it take to make changes?

• Being open to discussion;

• Confirming what we understand with questioning;

• Provide training on stereotypes at universities;

• Have different models;

• Exposing young people to different things to develop their curiosity;

• Networking.

To learn more about the subject, you can listen to the entire content of the show at: https://www.sciencepresse.qc.ca/vote-pour-science/2021/11/24/dessine-moi-scientifique-biais-genre-science. In addition, you can listen to the documentary "Picture a scientist" on Netflix, enjoy.