Emakumeak Zientzian is a project focused on increasing gender equality in STEM through a range of activities, with a strong focus on STEAM. The programme was created by POLYMAT (Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering) and is supported by 17 organisations in all education levels from the STEM ecosystem in the Basque Country (Spain).
Emakumeak zientzian is a project promoted by POLYMAT (Basque Center for Macromolecular Design and Engineering) which was set up in 2017 in order to inspire science, technology and engineering vocations among girls and female adolescents, as well as to contributing to combat the gender stereotypes associated with research jobs. The project was launched on February 11 - the International Day of Women and Girls in Science – as a purely promotional activity. However, over time it has become a programme of STEAM activities aimed at different segments of the population and run by Polymat and a further 17 entities from the Basque scientific and technology ecosystem.
Currently the programme involves over 25 activities which are implemented annually. The majority of these activities are directly focused on inspiring science, technology and engineering vocations in girls and female adolescents and for them to aspire to careers in those areas, as well as to contributing to combatting gender stereotypes.
Emakumeak Zientzian’s accolades include:
The main objective of this initiative is to address the problem of gender inequality in the STEM field by introducing the gender perspective throughout the activities programme. In addition, the programme implements two specific STEAM education objectives:
Impact is measured primarily through impact surveys among participants. These indicate that the programme is effective in raising interest in STEM subjects among participants.
The programme's reach is measured as:
The programme is funded by participating companies, participating universities and the Spanish Government.