The girls in the Stem: this is how we bridge the gender gap

This article is published in issue 12 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until March 23, 2021

«Technology is the best friend of women», always said Marisa Bellisario, modernizing not a little the professed love of Marilyn Monroe for diamonds. Then, in his autobiography, Woman & top manager. My story (Rizzoli, 1987), the first major Italian company executive adds: “I find it a mistake on the part of women to think that interesting job opportunities are only in the” pink collar “service sector: public relations agencies, interpreting, consultancy on how to hold a dinner or a lounge.

Women can and must be present, with the same creativity, in industry and politics ».

In 2021 we would also add in information technology, programming, data processing. That is, in the so-called Stem disciplines (English acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics). Too bad that today, there are very few women in the Stem. A Microsoft research with the London School of Economics finds that in Italy only 12.6 percent of female students choose a school path linked to science subjects, only 6.4 percent work in ICT and 13.3 percent in engineering related sectors. A shame for women who, at this rate, will reach parity in a hundred years, according to the forecasts of the World Economic Forum. A shame for everyone, including men, since it has been calculated that, if there were an equal number of exponents of both sexes on the digital job market, the annual GDP of the European Union would grow by 9 billion euros.

The most paradoxical aspect revealed by the research, however, is the following: in girls the interest in Stem is born around the age of 11 and wanes around the age of 17, just when you are about to choose the university. Why? Because factors such as the lack of reference models and the arrogance of gender stereotypes intervene, which see certain areas as the exclusive prerogative of men. “Our society does everything to make women feel unequal. We carry this thing with us like a ball and chain “, explains in a video call on WhatsApp a very sprightly Amalia Ercoli-Finzi, better known as” the lady of the comets “ for directing the Rosetta space mission to comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko. 83 years old, from Gallarate (in the province of Milan), she was the first woman to graduate in aeronautical engineering at the Milan Polytechnic. He conducted studies to land a human crew on Mars and build a botanical garden on the moon. He has seen comets up close and describes them as “something so beautiful that the Eternal Father must have smiled when He created them.” She has taught Orbital Mechanics and mentored hundreds of girls who, like her, have chosen to try in science. At the same time, she raised five children.

To succeed in everything she applies the “law of the three metals”: nerves of steel, health of iron and a husband of gold, who is not the man who helps you load the dishwasher. If it does, so much for the better, of course. However, for me, the golden husband is the one who encourages you and who, at the right moment, tells you: “You can do it”. I have met many women who, if they had been encouraged, would have been professionally much more satisfied. And happier in life. Because it is wonderful to take care of children, but then, when the children grow up and leave, if you have not cultivated anything else, you are only left with the dog and the cat! ».

The encouragement, if it does not come from the partner, can come from the school, from civil society, from the third sector. It is with this spirit that, For five years, the Municipality of Milan has been dedicating every April to #STEMintheCity, an initiative organized with the support of the United Nations. The goal: to promote girls’ access to technical-scientific studies. The tool: a free platform, STEMintheCity.eu, where you can attend training courses in the Stem field (such as coding webinars, the computer programming language) and participate in talks, meetings and conferences with role models such as virologist Ilaria Capua or the electronic engineer Anna Grassellino.

“The 2021 edition, which will culminate with a three-day” Stem marathon “on 22, 23 and 24 April, is dedicated to environmental sustainability, which finds an ally in digital innovation to respond to the urgencies of the planet”, he explains. Roberta Cocco, councilor for digital transformation, civic services and soul of the initiative. 54 years old, a past as an executive at Microsoft, a husband, three children and a full of inexhaustible energy, Cocco started dealing with gender issues when she got pregnant for the second time: “Knowing I was expecting a baby girl, I wondered which future lay ahead of her. And I felt the need to do something about it ». She did it first in the company where for years she has worked hard for the computer literacy of women in the area, and now in the Municipality where she fights so that girls do not give up a bright future just for fear of not succeeding. «I had the greatest satisfaction two years ago. After participating in a coding course made available by #STEMintheCity, I received a letter from three girls: they had begun the seminar unwillingly, forced by their teacher and certain that they were not up to par. They concluded it enthusiastically, much more confident in their abilities and willing to enroll in Informatica ».

Similar stories dot the universe of Coding Girls, a program created by the Fondazione Mondo Digitale to support gender equality in the fields of science and technology and to encourage the participation of young women in the labor market. This year’s edition involves over 15,000 girls in 24 Italian cities, thanks to partnerships with schools and universities throughout the peninsula. The organizer Mirta Michilli, general director of the Fondazione Mondo Digitale, explains how the gender gap – quantifiable in the fact that the female employment rate stops at 56.1 percent, while the male rate is close to 77 percent – would be bridged if female students of today would fit in, tomorrow, in those slices of the market where the demand is highest. “There are companies that struggle to find qualified professionals in the fields of IT, iCloud Computing, software development. That’s what high school students have to aim for. Many of them, alas, are held back by the thought of not being “cut out” for the sciences. It is something that we women are repeated from an early age. If a boy gets 4 in mathematics it is because he has not studied, if a girl takes it it is because she is not capable ».

Amalia Ercoli-Finzi, the aerospace engineer, adds: «Often this statement becomes almost a habit. But proclaiming that you understand nothing of mathematics is not a boast: it is a declaration of imbecility! Mathematics is a subject like any other: it must be well explained and studied. Point”. She, the lady of the comets, has studied it and then applied it in 50 years of stellar career. Although her parents envisaged a much more traditional path for her. “They saw me well as a teacher. I also had the role physics: petite, with curls, I only lacked round glasses and I would have been perfect. But I am a born engineer. As a child, I liked music, art, even embroidery. But I was especially fascinated by the secret behind how things worked. I wanted to know why, at the push of a button, the light bulb went on. So my father gave in: let it be Engineering, but without a day off course. I satisfied him: I graduated on time, with honors ».

She was one of 5 women out of 650 enrolled. Have you ever felt like a “white fly”? «Some of my companions did not greet me. One day he told me: good girls don’t enroll in engineering. I thought the world was full of crazy people. Later, when I started working, I realized that, in the world of space, we women are initially viewed with suspicion. Then, however, the merit and commitment are recognized. That said, there are still very few female figures in top positions. And making a career for us is fundamental because the rules of the game can only be changed from above ».

Among the rules to be changed is the embarrassing wage gap that places Italy in 125th place out of 153 nations. In fact, women’s wages are lower in all contractual categories. Stem included. In fact, although the few girls enrolled in technical-scientific faculties graduate with higher grades (the think tank Orizzonti Politici calculates an average of 103.7 against 101.9 for males), they have lower employment and pay rates. According to a report by the Observatory Talents Venture and Assolombarda, one year after graduating in a Stem discipline, 91.8 percent of boys against 89 percent of girls find work. A gap that widens five years after graduation, when the percentage of employed women falls to 84 while that of men remains stable. The gap is also reflected in the salaries, and is around 300 euros per month for the same role.

«We must demand equal pay. Girls often hesitate to ask for a raise. For many talking about money seems – pass me the term – “a whore thing”. But is not so: salary is key, as is holidays and decent working hours. We women also need to take care of the family».

Finzi’s is particularly numerous: five children and seven grandchildren whom she has always put first: «Once, to talk to my daughter’s professors, I went back and forth from Venice where I was holding a conference. The trip cost me 500,000 lire, but it was worth it. For me, family and work can coexist peacefully, just give importance to the important things. And delegate the rest. I changed 32 nannies and I didn’t always have a shiny sink, but who knows how many other great workers it will have happened“. One that you particularly valued? «Margherita Hack. She was a friend. I recognized myself in his taste for the sobriety of life. We got along on almost everything. Only faith divided us because, you see, I am a believer. But, now that you are in the Hereafter, I’m sure you are saying: Amalia was right! ».

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