Emakumeak Zientzian, people in search of a full life

* Thirty-two Basque organizations are jointly running a wide-ranging program in the 8th edition of Emakumeak Zientzian (Women in Science) in Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Araba.

* The main aim of this edition is to highlight the fact that people in the scientific and technological field want above all to enjoy a full life.

Thirty-two Basque organizations are joining forces around the Emakumeak Zientzian project, thus declaring their commitment to the aims of the initiative: to bring visibility to the activity of women in science, to break with the typically male roles attributed to scientific and technical activities, and to encourage girls and adolescents to opt for scientific careers. With these aims in mind, the organizations are coming together to run a joint program of activities to mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated every year on February 11.

Every year, in addition to achieving the main aims of the initiative, we in the Emakumeak Zientzian collective are making a deep reflection that is helping us to drive forward a much-needed change of scenario in the technological and scientific panorama. So this year “we want to emphasize that people in the scientific and technological field are still people with their own needs, their passions, their commitments and their hobbies”, say the organizers of Emakumeak Zientzian. In the field of science, as in so many others, today there is a demand to change the standards of excellence and the idea that a professional vocation leaves little time to devote to family, leisure or personal development. All this will be captured in a very personal video. “We are going to launch a campaign starring various people from the scientific and technological field and in which we have put the focus on their lives beyond science. We don’t want super heroines who achieve everything, nor do we want people to give up trying to achieve success. Their lives are real as they try to strike a balance in the different stages of a professional career,” they added.

The Emakumeak Zientzian 2024 program will be focusing on the week from 8 to 16 February. An extensive, varied program of more than 60 activities has been designed covering the three Basque provinces for the first time, by incorporating the capital of Araba as the setting for some of the events in this new edition so that the message that ‘science is girls’ stuff’ can reach and permeate as many people as possible. “We would like to make a special appeal and invite everyone, regardless of gender, identity, origin, profession or age, to participate in the activities,” the Emakumeak Zientzian organizers added.

To gather momentum, this year Emakumeak Zientzian will be kicking off in a festive atmosphere on Thursday, February 8 in Donostia-San Sebastian, where the video will be presented, where even more testimonies will be shared and where all the volunteers and representatives of the organizations will be gathering.

From that day on, in Gipuzkoa, Bizkaia and Araba, there will be activities open to the public of all ages. For the general public, Donostia-San Sebastian, Bilbao and Vitoria-Gasteiz will be hosting the event Women Scientists of Yesterday and Today, in which women scientists working in different fields of research will take to the stage to tell us about the research projects they are working on and pay tribute to some of the great women scientists in history through the story of their fascinating lives and scientific contributions. In addition to the usual student visits to research centers and specific workshops for teenagers, this year we will be repeating the Back to School experience in which more than 60 female researchers will go to school classrooms to share their experiences and help to awaken a vocation for science among students. Likewise, specific groups, such as women over 55, will continue to be catered for in order to highlight the role of adult women as transmitters of culture, with the activity The power of experience, in which seven research centers will be opening their doors to make known the research they are conducting through a series of short experiments that are easy to do anywhere, so that scientific culture can flow into families and into our environments. There will also be various roundtable discussions geared toward the scientific and technological community, and to younger people to learn more about entrepreneurship and meet female engineers.

The full program of activities is available from today onwards on the website www.emakumeakzientzian.eus and registrations for the various activities are already open.

The 32 organizations involved in the 8th edition of Emakumeak Zientzian are a significant representative sample of the Basque Country’s science and technology base. Achúcarro, BCMaterials, the Center for Materials Physics (CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU), CIC biomaGUNE, University of Deusto, UPV/EHU Computing, UPV/EHU Chemistry, Aranzadi Scientific Society, the Basque Artificial Intelligence Center (BAIC), Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), BioBizkaia, Biodonostia, Ceit, CIC energiGUNE, CIC nanoGUNE, Cidetec, Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Elhuyar, Eureka! Zientzia Museoa-Kutxa Foundation, Bizkaia Biophysics Foundation (FBB), Ikerlan, Ingeniariak, Mondragon Faculty of Engineering (MEGP), Mubil, Technology Parks of Euskadi-Basque Country, POLYMAT, Tecnalia, Tecnun, UPV/EHU Engineers and Vicomtech.

Emakumeak Zientzian 2024 has the outstanding support of the Chartered Provincial Councils of Bizkaia and Gipuzkoa, and Fomento San Sebastián, and the Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA) and Salto as well as the collaboration of the following bodies and organizations: the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), the Spanish Research Agency through the Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu centers as partners in the initiative, the Basque Film Library and the Donostia-San Sebastian International Film Festival, Donostia Kultura, Emakunde-Basque Institute for Women, the Lemniskata network, Ikerbasque, Aspegi (Association of Professional, Business and Managerial Women of Gipuzkoa), Biook, Skills4Science, the directorate for Equality of the UPV/EHU and Casio.