Equality Days: Artistic Intervention for the integration of girls and women in STEAM areas

English version: Diana Taborda

Exhibitions, theatre, workshops, cinema and music set the programme for the first edition of Equality Days, organised by the University of Coimbra (UC) takes place between 30 May and 1 June. The artistic event - with free entrance, but registration required - aims to raise awareness in the community about the importance of attracting and retaining girls and women in STEAM areas [Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Mathematics], discussing multidimensional factors that usually keep them away from technological fields.

As part of the UC project Equal.STEAM - Integrated Programme for Attraction and Retention of Girls and Women in Higher Education in Technological and Engineering Areas - , funded by the Human Capital Operational Program in Portugal (POCH), “Equality Days” include a set of artistic performances, with the aim of deconstructing gender stereotypes. The event will take place at the UC Campus II, both in outdoor and indoor spaces. Most activities will be held in the East parking lot of the Department of Civil Engineering.

EQUAL.STEAM develops a set of integrated and inclusive activities and contents to promote equity in higher education, contributing to the attraction and retention of girls and women in technological and engineering areas, as well as to the improvement of pedagogical quality and the articulation and transition to the labor market.

Cristina Albuquerque, coordinator of the project and Vice-Rector for Education and Student Affairs, explains that “Equal.STEAM comprises a set of 17 activities that combine multidimensional languages and perspectives, in order to deconstruct gender stereotypes and to outline intervention processes that will continue after the conclusion of the project. Although Equal.STEAM focuses mainly on attracting and retaining girls and women in technology areas and in scientific careers, our wider purpose is to create dynamics for a change in self-fulfilling prophecies and stereotypical perceptions. Therefore, Equality Days is a public event that, besides marking the end of the project, promotes awareness-raising activities through different artistic languages on factors that may influence or hinder full freedom of choice for all women, and opens the debate not only to the UC but also, and above all, to the entire local community, which we invite to join in.”

All detailed info at Equality Days: Artistic Intervention for the integration of girls and women in STEAM areas.