Equity Webinars

In 2020 we started a series of mini-cycles of webinars related to equality. Each mini-cycle is composed of three webinars spaced two or three weeks apart. In them we aim at exploring new aspects, little adressed, or highly interesting for the scientific community, with a clear formative vocation. Most of the webinars can be found on our youtube channel.

Spring Cycle 2023

Foreign researchers in the Spanish science and technology system

With Gülsüm Ersü (ICMM-CSIC), Thorben Bethe (FECyT) and Lina Maria Aguirre (Haleon).

When: May 24, 2023 - at 11AM

As you all know, mobility is a key feature in research schemes and it represents one of the main requirements in some of the most competitive international research funding programs. Nevertheless, internationalization is still a pending subject in Spanish research institutes, as foreign researchers often have to encounter many bureaucratic constraints to start and carry on their activity. In this webinar, we draw the attention to some vulnerable situations experienced by foreign researchers working in Spanish research institutes.  
 

Material for a Sustainable World: Capacitist Microaggressions

By: Eva Moral Cabrero - Doctora en Estudios Interdisciplinares de Género y Políticas de Igualdad

Date: Apr 19, 2023 - Time: 11:00

This webinar is proposed as a space to learn and reflection about capacitism as a "compulsory capability system", in the words of Robert McRuer (2021), and microaggressions as one of its manifestations. Building a more sustainable world involves considering all lives and recognizing our participation in the reproduction of the device of disability in our daily lives and through our scientific work.

Scientific misinformation: how we fight against it and the role of female experts

By Rocío Benavente - Journalist in Maldita Ciencia 

Date: 2023-03-22 - Hour 11:00

The problem of misinformation goes beyond the so-called "fake news" and is not external to the scientific field. Maldita.es is fighting against misinformation using a scientific way of communication that includes the denial of hoaxes. We work on their explanation and we answer questions sent to us by our community. To be really effective we need to collaborate with experts in each scientific field, who can provide evidence-based knowledge, what we call "superpowers". After several years of work we noticed the gender balance that exists in our sources and we launched the project "Superpowers". Currently, we have achieved gender balance in the sources we use for our journalistic work.

Past cycles

Why girls don't study technical sciences and what we can do in the classroom about it. Leni Bascones

We organize workshops for teachers to raise awareness towards gender perspective. We show data and scientific studies that identify how the existence of biases keeps girls away from STEM disciplines and we provide guidelines and resources that help avoid it. This workshop is one of them, this time in online format.

Prevention of bullying in the university environment

Paula Martín Peláez. Universidad Complutense de Madrid de Madrid, SegreVuni Project. 

This webinar reviews the speaker's research work in the field of harassment and sexual and gender-based violence at the University. She presents reports on reported cases, and analyses the conditions that protect those cases that are not reported. She talks about the institutional culture of harassment, the personal experiences of those who decide to report, and support initiatives to accompany those who may be at risk.

Improve LGTBIQA+ inclusivity in research centres: A. Villafranca y J.I. Pichardo

LGTBIQA+ people still face barriers in the scientific field that hinder their professional development and personal well-being due to their sexual orientation and gender identity. These include a lack of visibility, an unwelcoming environment and denial of their reality. As a consequence of these barriers, members of this group are less inclined to study scientific careers and drop out of them to a greater extent. To raise awareness of this problem, #LGBTSTEMDAY will be held on 18 November. In the webinar, with which we want to join the activities of this day, our speakers will propose strategies to help achieve a more inclusive scientific environment with the group.

How to identify gender discrimination in science on a daily basis. Marta Macho Stadler 

In any field, women face numerous forms of discrimination that prevent their professional careers from developing in the same way as those of their male colleagues. In the world of academia, the situation is aggravated by the enormous hierarchisation that characterises it. In the webinar, we will give some examples of these discriminations (ranging from the "subtle" to the most flagrant harassment) and we will try to give some keys to detect them and break this unfair and sterile situation.

Mentoring How? When? Does it work?  Sara Gómez, Lorena Fernández, Elena Casacuberta.

The number of women studying technical careers is low. Those who choose a scientific-technical career tend to drop out or stagnate in their professional development to a greater extent than men. To try to alleviate this leaky pipeline, there are various mentoring initiatives. With different formats, individual or group, different mentoring approaches and at different stages of the professional or educational career, these programmes seek to develop the full potential of the person being mentored. In the webinar we will discuss how different mentoring models help to reduce the gender gap in science and technology.

Hacking unconscious bias in science. Marta García-Valenzuela

In this talk we will discover the power of unconscious biases, how our brains play tricks on us and what strategies women and men can put into play to favour a much more inclusive future for society and for the scientific field.

Differences between sexual harassment and harassment at work. Sexual harassment is gender-based violence. Begoña Marugan

Despite the assimilation of harassments, it is important to establish the differences between them. Not only are there differences in terms of the different nature of workplace harassment and sexual harassment, but the regulations governing their treatment are also different. The different gender dimensions involved, which make sexual harassment another type of gender-based violence, will be explained in more detail.

Evaluation of Scientific Personnel with a Gender Perspective: V. Ley, O. Salido, C. Díaz.          
 

Gender equality policies in academia: structural change and resistance. María Bustelo

The webinar will look at the reasons for implementing structural change policies in the scientific field, what are the problems and how are Europe and Spain trying to mitigate them? We will talk about the three gender equality objectives of Horizon 2020: gender balance in academic careers, selection and promotion; gender balance in decision-making and gender mainstreaming in research content, as well as a cross-cutting area of fighting stereotypes and harassment as a form of violence. And we will give examples of measures and the resistances they generate.

Experiences making LGTBIQA+ diversity visible in science. L. Gil, M. Logares y M. Pelaez

The 18th of November has been chosen by the LGTBIQA+ community to make the community visible in the field of Science, Engineering and Mathematics. From the ICMM we want to join this commemoration by sharing the experience of several people who, in different formats and projects, have been involved in raising awareness of LGTBIQA+ people working in this area.

Women scientists in the media. Pampa G. Molina y Alda Ólafsson       
 

Promoting gender equality in research centres. M. Blasco, M. Gómez y S. Gallego

Gender inequality manifests itself in many different ways in the field of science. At this round table we want to reflect on the possible measures that can be implemented by research centres to reduce this inequality. To this end, and with the aim of sharing good practices, we will learn about the measures that have been implemented in three research centres to promote gender equality and how they are working.

Science or prejudice in the face of LGTBIQA+ reality, Javier Armentia

Looking from the inside, we would like to think that the world of science and technology is an environment where rationality and fairness come as standard. It is essential to work on solid and demonstrable bases, to avoid prejudices and not to submit to dogmas are certainly privileged places on paper. But reality shows that, when it comes to people working in the world of science, it is not easy to avoid prejudices, when they affect sexual diversity or, as we have seen so evidently, gender issues. In this seminar we will take a look at the reality that we are learning about LGTBIQA+ people and scientific environments, and how we have seen the need to take into account that the world of science needs to be egalitarian and diverse, because this diversity is a richness that also yields better research.