Women graduates of Engineering from the UNLP reached 30%

A total of 458 students graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at the National University of La Plata (UNLP) during 2022, a record in historical terms that also show that of that total 30% are women, when in recent years that proportion did not cover 10%. The data were presented by authorities of the academic unit in a talk with principals of secondary schools. The figure becomes relevant if one takes into account that, according to data from the Secretariat of University Policies (SPU) at the national level, the percentage of women students in the upper cycle is 58%, reaching in some careers to exceed 80%, while in engineering it reaches only 20%. “Since we began to disseminate the careers offered by the Faculty of Engineering, through visits to schools and other promotional activities, more women have begun to choose them,” acknowledged the dean of the Faculty of Engineering, Marcos Actis. If we talk about gender and knowledge gaps, a few months ago Ecofeminita published a report where they explain that future professionals tend to choose careers associated with stereotypically “feminine” tasks, such as teaching or health. “Like the domestic sphere, the labor market women are also overrepresented in sectors linked to care and reproductive tasks,” they detailed. In addition, they indicated that the wage gap occurs in all branches of knowledge, with values between 11% in Human Sciences and 23% in Applied Sciences. “The widest gaps are observed in those branches of knowledge associated with higher remuneration,” they said. 

Original source in Spanish