Today, 11 February, we celebrate the International Day for Women and Girls in Science.

Recognising the role of women in science remains a challenge. Although progress has been made in recent years, they are still a minority, especially in positions of responsibility and hierarchy.

We all have to get involved to multiply the visibility of women in science. Of their projects, their ambitions and their achievements. This visibility is now an essential tool for promoting scientific careers among the youngest. It is not a whim. Science is more necessary than ever, and it cannot afford not to value the contribution and initiatives of women as they deserve.

According to UNESCO, only 28% of the world’s researchers and 35% of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) students are women. The gender gap in science is a proven reality, illustrated by the famous scissors graph. A graph that shows that women are in the majority at the pre-doctoral level (52% compared to 48% of men) and that the differences are reversed and increase as we progress in specialisation, becoming more evident at the research professor level, where 74% are men compared to 26% women ¹. This situation means that there are few models and referents of public knowledge who are women.

At Uquifa, we have invested and will continue to invest in concrete actions to promote equal opportunities between men and women.

As a company, we are proud to contribute our grain of sand and to be able to count, within our family in Spain, a total of 136 women, of whom 19 are in “Management” positions (37%*), 2 in “Senior/Top Management” positions (33%*) and 68 occupy positions of a scientific and technical nature (“Quality Control & Quality Assurance” (71%*) and “R&D” (53%*)).

We greatly appreciate the effort and value you bring to our company every day.

For a more equal scientific world.

* Represents the percentage of women among all male and female employees in the same occupational category (management, senior management/top management) and within the same department (‘Quality control and assurance’ and ‘R&D’).

1 CSIC Women Researchers Report, 2019. (page 4) Available at:
 https://www.csic.es/sites/default/files/informe_mujeres_investigadoras_2019_0.pdf