Abstract
It is well known that the number of women in scientific careers is significantly lower than the number of men, especially in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas. Considering that science should be used for the benefit of all, by excluding women from the production process of scientific knowledge, we are giving up of 50% of the intellectual capacity to different science fields. Thus, the Museum of Astronomy and Related Sciences, whose mission is to expand society's access to scientific knowledge, promotes the project "Girls in the Museum", aimed at the continuous education of seven high-school female students in topics of astronomy with the goal of stimulating them into liking science. Concurrently with the project, interviews were conducted to evaluate the initiative according to the participants' perspectives, as well as to understand their perceptions about science prior and after six months of the project. We found that the participants were satisfied with the format and content of the project, comprised of theoretical talks and practical workshops. The resulting discourses show that they now view science as something closer to their lives and are more confident to promote scientific discussions. These results show the importance of providing young females with role models they can look up, especially at the age when they are about to make decisions concerning their future career.
Highlights
Science is a social institution that is neither univocal nor neutral, but historically and geographically situated
In this paper we presented the results of the evaluation of the first phase of “Girls in the Museum” from the point of view of the participants, in order to serve as a diagnose of the adequacy of the Project
The discourses of the collective subject show that the format of the training period, consisting of theoretical lectures and practical workshops and visits, was adequate and helped students to feel more confident about Astronomy
Summary
Science is a social institution that is neither univocal nor neutral, but historically and geographically situated. The Science journal published an article early this year showing that girls learn to underestimate their gender from the age of six, when they begin to associate high-level intellectual ability (brilliance, genius...) with men more than women [6]. This research provided the absolute numbers of women belonging to the International Astronomical Union from countries with more than 40 members, as is the case of Brazil, and showed that only 22.7% of astronomers were women in Brazil in 2009. This percentage is currently 28%, considering more recent statistics from the Brazilian Astronomical Society
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