INTERVENTION

 

Good morning, everyone, and above all, welcome, .

 

Welcome, Catalan Minister for Research and Universities and Chair of the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation; Catalan Minister for Equality and Feminism, Catalan Minister for Education, Deputy Mayor for Culture, Education, Science and Community, Chair of the Barcelona Institute of Science and Technology (BIST), Councillors, authorities, but above all, the women here involved in science, a very warm welcome to you.

 

It's great to see more of us here every year and more women scientists attending this event. So many more that there's no longer room for everyone. And let it continue that way, may this event of which we are so proud keep on growing.

 

And it fills me with pride and joy, as Mayor of Barcelona, to welcome you here to the Saló de Cent room in the City Hall. And pleasure to share a new event with so many women from the world of science and with so many individuals involved in the #100tífiques project. Although we ought to say hundreds, thousands, because we fortunately keep on growing.

 

I'd like to congratulate the organisation, BIST, the Catalan Foundation for Research and Innovation, the Catalan government, for this fifth edition of 100tífiques:

• For the event today, which brings together more than 250 professionals from the world of science and technology, creating a space for meeting and debating and, very importantly, raising profiles.

• For the talks this coming 10 February, where you will all be sharing your everyday professional experiences with hundreds of students from schools and colleges throughout Catalonia.

 

Having real and local role models to support children and young people when making academic decisions is essential. For one very clear reason: women are discriminated against in the field of science and research.

 

Not long ago we presented a study entitled Dones i Ciència a Barcelona [Women and Science in Barcelona] (City Council, February 2022) and the figures are not great:

• Only 41% of research staff in Spain are women.

• Of course, more discrimination can be observed if we look higher up: women occupy a mere 23% of research directorships.  

• Of all the people awarded honorary doctorates in Spain, only somewhere between 6% and 7% are women.

• And only 7% of young women express an interest in dedicating themselves to a technical profession, in contrast to 20% of young men.

 

In short, we see what's happening in other sectors of society too, that we women are half of the population, we are fully capable of working in every sector and occupying every position with the highest responsibility, and if that hasn’t been the case up to now that's because we're living in a structurally sexist system, which is patriarchal.

 

Which is why we will not give up, we are not the first, others have come before us. Our grandmothers, our women ancestors fought hard for progress in rights, freedoms and opportunities. And among the many things we need to do, we know that promoting vocations among girls and young women is crucial. For two reasons at least:

• Because women researcher role models such as yourselves are opening up the way and helping to promote an interest in science and technology.

• This is also crucial for the science we need. This is not just a question of justice and quotas. Unless women are also involved and the gender perspective is included in the research, we won’t have the science we need for the 21st century and the challenges ahead.

 

And that’s why we need women there at every level.

 

No one should feel left out. And above all, no girl should ever think that science studies are not for her. We need strong and inspiring role models like yourselves.

 

I should point out that I myself have experienced this in person, as Mayor of Barcelona. Because it's unusual that it’s taken over forty years of democracy for there to be a woman mayor, in such a modern, cosmopolitan city that's always held itself out as innovative. That's also a symptom of an anomaly.

 

And I've experienced being a role model in the street. With girls in the street asking me what it means to be mayor, how it works, what you’ve got to do to be one, and finally affirming “I’m going to be mayor”. So we can affirm how important it is to have role models at every level, in every sector but especially in the areas with the most visibility and responsibility.

 

It goes without saying that you’re not alone. It's a social problem, not an individual one. And it's us, the Administrations, who have the highest responsibility for this truly necessary change.

 

When it comes to the City Council’s science policies, promoting equality between men and women is one of the central goals underpinning all our policies.       

 

We have an example today: collaboration with the BIST for driving the specific mentoring programme for young women scientists.

 

And we’re also doing all that in a cross-cutting way:

• The Barcelona  STEAM Planfor promoting science vocations among children and young people, with the gender perspective. Launched by Barcelona Activa - it has reached 26,000 students since 2018.

• And the Hypatia Award, in recognition of the value of research and the impact on people’s well-being.

 

And, in general, we're doing this through various programmes that focus on combating educational and cultural inequalities (Cultural Rights Plan, Prometheus programme and so on.)

 

If we want to make the most of the talent we have, including women’s talent, we need to reduce inequalities and social injustice, which are the basis of the discrimination that's been draining us of this talent whose loss we neither want nor can afford.

 

All in all, it's part of the strategic commitment we've made to science like the one we launched under the Barcelona Science Plan for 2020

 

You are well aware that local authorities such as ours have no formal jurisdiction over science policies, but we do have every duty towards them and have allocated numerous resources to them. We have invested 52 million euros since 2019 in a strategy shared with the scientific community and city residents, in brand-new projects that have been very well received, such as:

• The City and Science Biennial, which is starting in a few days’ time. It will focus on ‘living’ and we're excited because it’s growing and being exported: it’s going to be shared with Madrid for the first time.

• The Citadel of Knowledge, a scientific, cultural and urban-planning initiative, with cutting-edge research, which is going to have over 2,000 researchers in biomedicine and the life sciences. And which I believe will become an international benchmark.

• As well as other facilities that are already international benchmarks, such as the Caixa Research Institute and the Supercomputing Center, and many more.

 

Just a few examples of why we're a Scientific and Cultural capital and the fourth most important city in the EU for academic publications. And we're an international scientific benchmark in the life sciences sector.

 

Why? Because we believe in science and research as the drivers of a new  social and economic model to have a more sustainable city which generates greater well-being for everyone so no one is left behind.

 

And this is something we’ll only be able to do if we women are there, you are there, everywhere. So many, many thanks to all you women doing science with every ambition and who are willing to become role models for girls, women of the future, who will be pursuing science for all our sakes.

 

Thank you very, very much.