Female Business Leaders Work to Close STEM Gender Gap

Female leaders at NASA, Google and other companies are joining their efforts to close the gender gap in STEM fields in Latin America and Mexico, which could help the country position itself as a global leader in technological talent.

According to the International Labor Organization (ILO), only 38 percent of jobs related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in Mexico are occupied by women. The organization also reported that female students among higher education graduates in STEM fields make up 31 percent.

InspiraMET “Technology and Science for All” aims to connect leading women in STEM with girls studying at a secondary and high school level to close the gender gap and promote female participation in these fields. It is constituted of four panels. The first connects Mexican female leaders at Google, Facebook, the University of Texas at Austin and First INC with 11,000 students and educators in Coahuila, Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon. The second panel will discuss cybersecurity, biotechnology and automation industries. The following two panels expect the participation of five Latin American female leaders at NASA as part of the 1st Girl Powered LATAM Festival, which will be available online. The event is sponsored by Motorola, Lenovo and Magna and is organized by MET Community and Global Foundation AC&T.

"The field of science and space is full of exceptional opportunities but we still need more women to be part of that extraordinary space exploration. There is a great need to have young people participate in exploration," said Adriana Ocampo, Director of NASA’s Science Program, regarding the event.

According to the organization’s webpage, the festival will last for three days an expects an average attendance of 3,000 people. It will showcase about 100 research projects and be attended by inspiring women in the sector who, through their experience, will nurture each attendee. The event includes workshops, international robotic tournaments, discussions with leaders inside STEM fields, a trade fair and exposure to research projects.

Efforts to close the gender gap in STEM fields in Mexico by motivating girls and women to choose these areas of study might gain the country more international attention. Mexico’s already existing STEM talent has helped the country achieve international recognition in the tech industry, as previously reported by MBN. Recent automation technologies engineered by Mexicans captured the interest of NASA, Hannover Messe and Mitsubishi Electric.