In 1975, the United Nations declared March 8th as the date for the International Women’s Day. Its origin goes back to the strikes of the North-American textile workers that took place during the late 19th century and early 20th century to claim their labour rights. This specific date looks back on the fire in one of the factories in which more than 100 workers died. Thus, the March 8th (M-8) ephemeris was born, so we remember those women among the many others that fought and still fight to achieve effective and real equality.
M-8 is an icon that represents a history of centuries of struggle. It makes us aware of the need to lead steady and resolute actions in the pursuit of gender equality. It is true that we have achieved many rights for women in this time, but there is still a long way to go. As it happens, the presence of women in universities today, 111 years after women were first able to access superior education, is predominant. That is not the case, though, for STEM degrees, which remain highly male-dominated. At the University of Barcelona, women are quite underrepresented in degrees such as Computer Engineering (14,8%), Materials Engineering (25%) or Physics (30,4%).
The Equality Comission of the University of Barcelona wants to join in this day with a conference given by Dr. Teresa Antoja Castelltort (Institute of Cosmos Sciences of the UB).
Dr Antoja is a Ramón y Cajal researcher in the Gaia group at the ICCUB. Her area of research is galactic dynamics and galaxy formation, and she works on the analysis of data from the Gaia mission, where she prepares everything so that they can be used quickly and efficiently. She is currently focusing his research on the analysis of the stellar current in the dwarf galaxy Sagittarius.
CONFERENCE: «DISCOVERING THE GALAXY WITH GAIA»
In recent years, we have witnessed a spectacular progress of our knowledge of the structure and history of our Galaxy. This was possible thanks to the volume and accuracy of the data provided by the Gaia satellite, in which the Barcelona group is deeply involved. We will see some of the discoveries that we have recently made which will help us put Gaia in a complex context where collisions with external galaxies, such as Sagittarius, have a key role.
By Teresa Antoja (ICCUB)
When? March 7 at 1:35 PM
Where? Sala de Graus Eduard Fontserè, Physics Faculty
