Closing the gap: our PROVOCA mentors

Mar 21, 2024 | News | 0 comments

Tags: ALMA

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Female representation in astronomy is a challenge worldwide, but when we look at Chilean women working in areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), the scenario is even more adverse.

And that is the mission of PROVOCA, a programme created in 2018 by AUI/NRAO that is guided under the slogan: “Let’s Promote Scientific Vocations”. What started as a communication campaign has grown to form a mentoring program so that girls and young women can make a better vocational decision in STEM areas.

A revolutionary program of which several ALMA women are part, some of whom showed their work as mentors to the rest of the organization on this last Women’s Day.
The online chat, attended by 56 men and women, began with an introduction of the program by Paulina Bocaz, AUI/NRAO representative in Chile. Then, Andrea Araya (Document Lead Specialist) talked about the role of women generating knowledge, Fabiola Cruzat (Array Maintenance Group Supervisor) addressed the female STEM work in shift systems, and Bárbara Sepúlveda (Maintenance Systems Analyst) explained the difficulties that women living outside Santiago have to participate in the STEM world.
It was a very fruitful conversation, where the participants asked about the concrete actions ALMA has taken to increase female participation.

“There are many things that we are doing at AUI and ALMA to try to reverse the situation, such as increasing the number of applicants, panel diversity, training on unconscious bias, etc. I believe that this jump from the historical 14% to the current 19% participation of women is evidence that we are making progress”, said Paulina Bocaz.

Juande Santander (Development Systems Engineer) was one of the men who participated in this activity and shared a fact that caught his attention: Women find it more difficult to apply for positions when they do not meet 100% of the requirements, while men, even if they have only 60%, dare to apply. According to Juande, after this learning process, “we began to reduce the requirements that are not necessary, and to think that there are equivalent experiences. We believe that these are things that can help,” he added.
In addition to mentioning the several female hires that Computing has had, and the upcoming appointment of a person in charge of Respect, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, other measures were mentioned, such as the implementation of inclusive language. “It is no longer astronomers who make discoveries, but also female astronomers, astronomical teams, the scientific community. It’s not the same thing to broaden the language and recognize roles. For some it may seem like a lot of hot air, but we believe it is not,” said Valeria Foncea, EPO manager.
And there was also space for the mentors to share their experiences with their mentees, such as their doubts about how to advance their studies in STEM careers: “We tell them ‘calm down, this goes little by little’, because there is a lot of uncertainty, especially when they start, and that also discourages them. This is the reason why they often drop out of academia. So this ‘academic’ support also helps them,” said Bárbara.

Andrea also shared an experience: “In one of the sessions on mental health, I was very complicated and decided to share many fears I had about mental health. We ended up generating a safe space where there was no student who did not tell us their fears. In just one session we made a tremendous change in how they felt, how we felt, and in the bond we were able to achieve,” she concludes.

From March 26th you can apply here to the PROVOCA program.
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