(Des)igualdade de gênero na área de STEM (Ciências, Tecnologia, Engenharia e Matemática)

Abstract

This work is a reflection on the proposals for increasing the representativeness of women in Science, Technology, Engenieering, Mathematics (STEM) field (acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics). This concern is due to the fact that the field of STEM will probably be the source of great demand for professionals in the next decade and the field is the origin of products and services linked to innovation and technology. If the number of women in higher education courses linked to STEM does not increase, gender inequality will increase even more. The research understands, from several aspects, the reasons why women are not opting for higher education courses in the STEM field and do not persist in their careers. Finnally, a systematic review of the literature was carried out, an interview with a PhD Professor in the Physics field and an observation in an Movement of Women Programmers. In the systematic review of the literature, under the precepts of De Arruda et al. (2019), and it was found that in 42.11% of the articles, the cultural issue, or some semantic association of the term, was expressly addressed, such as breaking the gender stereotype and the STEM field, followed by 36.84% suggests any change in early childhood education and high school, or introducing extracurricular activities. In 21.05% of the articles, the issue of presenting female models was raised. In addition, there was a shortage of scientific articles aimed at women within companies linked to STEM. In the interview with the PhD Professor in Physics and the observation of the Movement of Women Programmers it was possible to observe that questions about the lack of exposure in the area, stereotypes and cultural issues are present when trying to understand the low representation of women in STEM field