The role of women in environmental sciences
The School of Environmental Engineering organized the event “The contribution of women in environmental sciences” on the last day of July with the speakers Virginia Mosquera and Alexandra Urgilez, both engineers dedicated to the environment and doing their doctorates in Europe.
Mosquera studied Environmental Engineering in Guatemala and is doing his PhD at the University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) in Sweden; Urgilez studied Civil Engineering in Ecuador and is doing her PhD at Delft University in the Netherlands.
"One of the ideas of choosing them is to show the work of young people entering environmental sciences, make them visible and encourage more young people to join the Environmental Engineering career at our University," explained Elizabeth Ochoa, professor at the School.
The Academic Board of the race continuously analyzes the cross-cutting issue of gender, both in the topics to be discussed in the conferences and in fact looking for female academics as speakers.
"Two of the members of the Board, Johanna Ochoa and I, are members of the Ecuadorian Network of Women Scientists (REMCI), so we have carried out some activities to make women in science visible, to preserve their participation, especially in areas techniques ”, explained Elizabeth Ochoa.
For the teacher, women - throughout history - have been immersed in caring for the environment, from the point of view of activism and also from their day to day; for example, in Africa and in Andean communities the work of women has been linked to the provision and care of water. Likewise, they are one of the first to be affected by the environmental crisis.
“From another point of view, more and more women are appealing to study careers in technical areas; however, in the Universities of our city and in many others around the world, their participation is even less compared to medical and social sciences, "added Ochoa and concluded:
"So, as a career in Environmental Engineering, we have the opportunity to draw the attention of women to our career, making visible the challenges and important contributions that women have made in environmental sciences."
