He acknowledges that he has not gone through “very unpleasant experiences” for his gender, but he says he has felt the ‘impact syndrome’ surely also influenced by her status as a woman. Even being aware that it is the same as the majority of society, which when asked about a scientific reference figure, would say before Albert Einstein than Marie Curie, who would only be named if she wonders for a woman, without have many female examples more by hand. Prado Martín Moruno, researcher and professor of the Institute of Particle Physics and the Cosmos (Iparcos) of the Complutense University of Madrid, has been in charge of the newly created one year Madrid node of the Association of Women Researchers and Technologists (AMIT)from where it has been proposed together with its team to promote equal rights in the scientific field, as well as create new vocations, especially among the girls focusing on the problems of their region.
On the occasion of International Day of Women and Girl in Science, Martín Moruno participates in the CaixaForum Center of the ‘La Caixa’ Foundation in some conferences together with María Martín Conde, Professor of Industrial Chemical Engineering and Environment at the Polytechnic University of Madrid; and Gloria Platero Coello, research professor at the Madrid-CSIC Materials Institute, precisely to claim the contributions of great scientists and promote gender equality in the field of science and technology, a subject still pending.
-Amit-Madrid was created last year. What intention is born and what has been the balance?
-Amit as a state organization has been working for a long time. However, it was seen that some of the objectives that he pursued, such as arouse vocations among the youngest or conciliation, work better at the regional level. Different nodes such as Aragon, Catalonia or Andalusia had already been created. In Madrid it has not emerged before because many of the representatives were already here, but we were missing a little more feeling of the strongest network. So we met in January last year and we arrived at the quorum necessary to create the new node. From the Board we were transmitted that they were delighted and that we started working normally, although it was officially approved in September.
-And once they have started working, how have the scientific-femenine panorama found in the Community of Madrid?
-Depers of what topic you ask. For example, until now our presence in schools has been limited to us to ourselves go to the centers of our children or our acquaintances in an effort that, until now, has been more individual than as an association. To start acting more as a collective, this year, for example, we have sent proposals for activities to the schools that have asked us; And we have launched ‘GATA SCIENCE‘, an initiative that aims to disseminate the stories, work and scientific achievements of women researchers linked to the Community of Madrid, such as Physics Gloria Platero, who in 2023 received the Emmy Noether award, or the chemistry and pharmaceutical . On the other hand, from AMIT-MIT (the Node of Women for Innovation and Technology of AMIT) is being coordinated in our region an initiative of great success, ‘an engineer in each school’.
-And as for the scientific women who currently exercise as such?
-Currently we are analyzing the status of the reconciliation of the teaching and researcher personnel of the Community of Madrid. It is being complicated because each university has its regulations. At the moment, we have raised a round table with representatives of universities to try to advance a bit on the subject and above all that women are clear what our rights are, because we have found that sometimes they are directly unknown.
-Do you think that during the last years it has been possible to advance in the visibility and recognition of the investigative woman?
-I think that associations such as Amit have been achieved, for example, that women are included within the science laws, that a greater female representation is enhanced. I am from an area where there are very few women, so I am not very positive about it, because I see how few continue and, in addition, many remain on the way. While in other areas they complain that women do not reach positions of responsibility, what I see is that in mine they do not even start the research career.
-Do you spend any green outbreak at least?
-I see many in the sense that when we do an event with young people there is interest and desire. There is a lot of stereotype too. The other day I read a study in which it was pointed out that gender roles begin to internalize from four years and scares a bit. But more and more efforts are made so that the problem, which is obviously not yet solved, improves.
-To your judgment, what does the role of the administration have to be? And that of the private company?
– Here we can talk about biases: until recently people related theoretical physics with Albert Einstein, also in an image with ruffled hair and the tongue out. There are now new referents and there are many who think, for example, in Sheldon Cooper (protagonist of the series ‘The Big Bang Theory’). And it’s fine, I was funny and I don’t want to demonize it. But in this type of formats that get so far most of the time it is not shown that there are different realities and maybe it does not use three scientific women to explain their work to a school. And another issue is that of scientific dissemination: our members, like other researchers in a private basis, decide to go to schools and institutes voluntarily in their free time. From the institutions perhaps you could try to do something to recognize it also at work.
-What was your personal experience?
-In general, it has been good, because if I wouldn’t be where I am. I have not had very unpleasant experiences. I also have to say that I have not had many women’s companions. With the passage of time, you begin to recognize that, at some times, I have been able to feel more insecure as it is curious, I have been knowing more things. The so -called ‘impostor syndrome’. In congresses and publications I have not noticed it, nor in the promotion possibilities because here in Spain it is more or less regulated at the time you get the square and, in principle, you have the same possibilities as your classmates. That as long as you have no reconcile needs that lead you to take a reduction in day, of course.
-Because pregnancy and motherhood in a world as competitive as that of science are at odds.
-The maternity casualties are complicated when you do not yet have a fixed job, because if you stop publishing you may not get the next project or contract. Although that, more than the genre, would be relative to conciliation, in our society it is women who continue to invest more time in care. But also pregnancy would be our something, because we take into account maternity leave, but not gestation. And not all pregnancies are the same, you are not 100%. And if you don’t have a fixed job, you can’t afford not to publish in a year. All also in a world where it is difficult to stabilize before 40 years.
-What do you think about female referents in science? Maybe we continue to constantly feed the old male canons?
-Here there are two things. First, the unconscious bias that we all have, and I include myself: when you think of names, many times it is those of men who come to mind. In this sense, from Amit a scientific database They do not have to belong to the association to be present so that the media can find experts in the field they need. There are other initiatives, such as that in the lists of candidates for the National Research Awards, the same number of men than women in the candidacies appear, which seem good to me: if then the prize has to go for three lords, Well, wonderful; but that starts from a joint condition.
-Your organization chart is completely formed by women. What do you think the role of man should be in all this?
-The association promotes equal opportunities for scientists and seeks to create new vocations. In fact, men can also be associated, although there are less than women. You cannot change a situation if half of society thinks that there is no problem or, that if there is, it does not go with them. But there are many scientists who are aware of the data, who notice that in some areas less girls are still arriving at the master’s degree and who want to change the situation, but they do not know how to do it. I also believe that it is not only a social problem, but also of diversity of ideas: many minds are needed to solve a problem; But many and varied, to give us different points of view. There are studies that indicate that the most diverse work teams are more creative.
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