On 8M, we break the glass ceiling, also in the scientific, technological and university world
This 8th March, International Women’s Day, Barcelona City Council is focusing on the fight against the vertical segregation that still prevents many women from gaining access to positions of responsibility. The scientific, technological and university fields are some of the areas in which women find it most difficult to occupy these positions, as if there were an invisible glass ceiling standing in the way of their advancement. For this reason, the slogan of this year’s campaign is, precisely, “Breaking the glass ceiling, so today’s girls are tomorrow’s chiefs”.
Even today, the majority of managerial positions in both the private and public sectors continue to be occupied by men, while women remain stagnant in those requiring fewer qualifications, even in the most feminised professional sectors. The campaign launched by the City Council makes some of the data on this gap visible. For example, only 24% of the research field is directed by women, there are only 2 women rectors in the 8 universities of Barcelona and only 23.44% of key positions in information and communication technologies are occupied by women.
This segregation, which prevents women from reaching the most responsible positions in the professional sphere, is based on gender stereotypes and traditional leadership models. The wage and pension gap, the feminisation of poverty, the loss of talent, the lack of female leadership role models and the psychosocial risks that affect women’s health and physical, psychological and emotional well-being are some of the consequences produced by this invisible barrier that separates them from positions of leadership.
In this context, the campaign wants to contribute to breaking the glass ceiling so that there are more women leaders in all areas of work, so that the girls of today are the heads of research, the rectors, the film directors and the CEOs of tomorrow.
You can follow the news around Women’s Day with the hashtags #8M and #SostredeVidre
Data and actions to break the glass ceiling
A document published by the Barcelona City Council through Science and Universities that collects data and recommendations to overcome this glass ceiling and reduce the existing gender gaps in the scientific field is Women and Science in Barcelona. The study was published in 2022 in response to the need to know the reality of women in the scientific fabric of Barcelona and the metropolitan region.
To get to know the testimonies of women leaders in their fields of research, last International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 February, Barcelona Science and Universities together with the digital culture magazine Núvol published a series of eleven interviews with Women scientists that you should know. The joint initiative was promoted to highlight the contribution of eleven women to science and society and, at the same time, to encourage girls and young women to undertake studies in the field of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics).
Likewise, in September last year, the City Council, through Barcelona Science and Universities, signed a collaboration agreement with the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST) to promote female leadership in the field of research and adopt specific measures to support postdoctoral researchers, junior group leaders, and empower girls and young women in science and technology careers.
And another of the programmes promoted by Barcelona Science and Universities, Escolab, which also contributes each year to awakening new scientific vocations among girls and young women students in secondary school, baccalaureate and vocational training, who experience first-hand the day-to-day life in a research laboratory.
