Discussion

In my presentation I will discuss the changes that have occurred (and that have not!) in Brazil regarding the participation of women in science. Although some progress towards gender equality has occurred, two main limitations are still in place. Firstly, even though the proportion of women researchers in Brazil is higher than the global average, gender equality has not improved in the fields of Engineering, Math and Physics. Secondly, gender equality has not changed significantly in the past 20 years when the upper levels of the academic/ scientific careers are considered. Based on my own experience, I listed seven main attitudes that have helped me and that need to be reinforced if we want to support young women scientists: (1) having early/deep exposition to Science, starting in high school; (2) finding women role models early on in your career and carefully select the type of mentors you should listen to; (3) planning family life together with your career plan: finding the right time to have kids is essential for a woman scientist to be able to experience the best of both worlds; (4) finding good advices that can help you become a group leader as soon as you create your own lab; (5) exercising good mentorship abilities with your students, both males and females; (6) finding different strategies for networking/collaborations so you can interact with top level scientists and, (7) finding a good balance between research, teaching and administration duties while moving up the academic ladder.