Author: Pascuala García-Martínez

The Equality Commission of the Faculty of Physics of the University of Valencia and the Spanish Women in Physics Group (GEMF) of the Royal Spanish Physics Society have organized the I National Virtual Meeting of Undergraduate Women in Physics last 12 July 2021. The meeting was sponsored by the GEMF and the Vice-Chancellor’s Office for Equality, Diversity and Sustainability in its 2021 call for grants for the organization of conferences, workshops and other events to promote equality between women and men and the visibility of women in academia.

The program consisted of lectures on physics by young pre-doctoral women researchers on different topics in the morning and in the afternoon, talks, round tables and working groups about gender and physics. The program is accessible in http://www.gemf-rsef.es/2021/07/01/i-encuentro-nacional-virtual-de-alumnas-de-fisica/ and the recorded videos are in https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTWVpSC0TqzxJfPOBsDYKgw

The asymmetry in the distribution by gender in the studies of the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, STEM) represents an extraordinarily serious problem for several reasons. One of them is the demand of STEM jobs in a near future and in addition those works will be well remunerated from the point of view of salary. The lack of women in those jobs will lead to an increase in the gender pay gap that, on average, today is above 16% and reaches 45% in the highest salaries. In the area of Physics and STEM, a strong decline in female presence shows a low interest of girls in these areas mainly in secondary education.

The acronym STEM is being changed to PECS (Physics, Engineering, Computer Science), which represent areas where women are dramatically underrepresented. For example, the male-female ratio among US college majors in biology, chemistry, and many other STEM fields is now 1 to 1, while in physics, engineering, and computer science (PECS), the relationship seems have stalled at roughly 4 to 1 as evidenced by the article published in the journal Science https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aba7377. In Spain, areas such as biology, chemistry and all degrees that involve bio- are highly feminized, and even the male-female ratio is reversed in many cases.

Conferences for Undergraduate Women in Physics (CUWiP)

Since 2012, the American Physical Society (APS) is organizing Conferences for female students in the Degree in Physics in the USA. CUWiP was founded with the goal of increasing the number of female physics graduates. Through a weekend of plenary sessions, workshops, and networking events, CUWiP seeks to provide university women with a supportive community and the tools they need to be successful in physics. According to the following article https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/202001/cuwip.cfm there is a direct correlation between attendance at these conferences and the increase in the number of female students enrolled in the physics degree.

With this motivation we organized this unprecedented event in Spain. We wanted to generate a network of sisterhood around interests in physics, making the role of women in physics visible, and encouraging female and male students to share discussions with senior women physicists. It is not just a place where they can receive training in physics and gender, but students will be able to participate in some activities by discussion groups that help them to create networks of cooperation and collaboration to eliminate barriers and obstacles that may find in their career path.

Prof. Pascuala García-Martínez is President of the Spanish Women in Physics Group of the Royal Spanish Physics Society:

• @GEMF_RSEF
• http://www.gemf-rsef.es/