International Day of Women and Girls in Science

2025/02/11 Elhuyar

• Berdintasuna

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is celebrated today, and Zientzia.eus has paid special attention to the subject from several vertices:

Sex and gender

Women still do not receive adequate medical treatment because medical practice and scientific research have not sufficiently internalized the variables of sex and gender. Teknopolis held a monographic session on this topic today.

Bernal Chico Achucarro, a researcher at the Basque Centre for Neuroscience, said: “In medicine and science, sex and gender must be considered both: because biological sex determines the probability of having different symptoms and ailments, and gender determines our behavior: our tendency to go to the doctor, how we perceive symptoms...” He continues to believe that medicine remains anthropocentric.

Women's Leadership

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science has also been featured on the North’s Ferrokarrila radio program, which has focused on the challenges facing women’s leadership in science.

Oihane Sanz Iturralde, a chemical researcher at the UPV/EHU, said: “It is necessary that the main researchers are women, but in the UPV only 10% of the main researchers are women.”

The program also included the career of physicist Mariana Medina, the first woman to lead a research line at CICnanoGUNE.

Teknopolis receives the award

The Teknopolis special on February 11 of last year has just received the Gerda Taro Prize for Journalism. Several researchers claimed the need to change science itself in order to attract women to science. The mathematician Uzuri Albizu Mallea said: “Science must become a safe space for women.” A chance to see it again, here.

This year, coinciding with the Women in Science initiative, Elhuyar launches for the fifth time the initiative “Showcases 11 de Febrero”, as well as the exhibition “Ciencias-mujeres al luz”.

And it cannot be forgotten that Elhuyar works throughout the year to overcome gender discrimination in the scientific-technological field of work. Proof of this is the Elhuyar magazine’s In Action section, which gives voice to scientists who are excluded from stereotypes.