Every March 8th is celebrated as International Women’s Day. A day that has been commemorated for more than 100 years, when female repression and gender inequality was more visible than today, so much that only men had the right to vote in most countries.
This history has taken a 180-degree turn. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country to give women the right to vote. Today, in 2022, there are more than 20 women heads of state in the world, including Jacinda Arden, Prime Minister of New Zealand. Jacinda has broken paradigms and stereotypes, not only by being the youngest woman head of state in history, nor by having a child during her term of office, but also by leading this country to be an example in the fight against social inequality and one of the best efforts against Covid19.
A year marked by the COVID19 pandemic
Covid19 has been marked as historical, as every country, every family, every person has gone through different situations that end up creating views and ways of thinking different from each other. This year the theme of International Women’s Day is to Break Bias, creating a world with equal opportunities for all, inclusive and without discrimination, where diversity and differences are valued and celebrated. The change begins by realizing the bias we have, that we have learned since we were children or that society has established for us, such as when we see a car maneuvering to park and we automatically think it is a woman behind the wheel or when it seems out of the ordinary for a father to take care of the children, giving importance and teaching these stereotypes to our children, without even doubting these ideas and behaviors so intrinsic to human beings. We must take a step back and realize that these prejudices can partially blind us, that they are so embedded in our culture that they seem normal, understandable and that we are doing harm without realizing it.
"Prejudices are part of our day to day life and fighting to change ways of thinking is not an easy job but between all of us we can achieve it."
Breaking bias, eliminating roadblocks....
The area of earth sciences and engineering has historically been dominated by the male gender, we women have encountered difficulties and impediments when it comes to finding work, being promoted to higher positions and even going to the field or working outside the office. In recent years we have shown that we are not the fair sex, in the School of Geodetic Engineering of the University of Zulia there are more women students than men, we see more and more women occupying high positions and being an example for future generations.
Geosciences are not the most popular professions in the market, much less for women. In general, science, technology, engineering and mathematics(STEM) have been striving to attract more women and break bias, race and age stereotypes. It is common to see companies looking to have a diverse and inclusive workforce, we have come to realize that diversity enriches discussions, strengthens ideas and fosters innovation.
We know great women in the field of Geodesy, Geomatics and Surveying and what better way to cheer them than by inviting them to participate in the celebrations that SIGGMA has prepared for International Women’s Day. We will have Patricia Castellano and Yeraldine Rivera to kick off the celebrations with a live on our Instagram account and we will culminate with a webinar presented by Paola Gonzalez where she will present the topic Trimble Autonomy: High-precision products and solutions for new markets and applications, summarizing some of the most important aspects of high-precision geospatial products and solutions for various applications.
“Because female empowerment does not favor only women, it enriches the whole society”.
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Luz Bacaicoa, Innovation and Strategy Manager SIGGMA
