Women in Blue

Intro

The gender gap is a global challenge. In her recent book called ‘Invisible Women’ Caroline Criado Perez exposes the magnitude of the consequences we face as a society if the ‘data’ we base our decisions on to design anything, fails to take into account gender. If we nevertheless try to go at the roots of the gender gap, a much more complex landscape unfolds before us. This landscape is not only based on numbers but also on beliefs, perspectives and worldviews. Otherwise said, it is based on ‘gazes’, on the way we look at the world.

Marine robotics is no stranger to the gender gap. Our recent survey uncovers how low actually the number of women working in this field are. This context is getting even more complicated as marine robotics becomes increasingly multidisciplinary, bringing together fields such as archeology, biology, data analysis and social sciences. What happens when the gazes of these fields meet, what vision of the gender gap do they bring to light? Can a plurality of voices account for a deeper understanding of the dynamics underpinning the gender gap?

Format

The Women in Blue social event at ‘Breaking the Surface’ tries to tackle this core question. Although the spotlight is on the challenges faced by women researchers in robotics and related fields, the event is open to anyone, no matter their gender, as we believe that this topic touches both women and men equally.  As a social event, we do not have a real ‘format’. Our aim is to keep discussion as much as possible open to the plurality of ‘voices’ that will join us. Nevertheless we prepared a sort of itinerary to give an idea of what you can expect from the event:

1. ‘Hearing voices’: Brief introduction about the current research undertaken in the frame of ‘Women in Blue’ on the gender gap in marine robotics followed by a brief discussion on gender inequality challenges coming from our guests, all women researchers who are exponents of the fields of marine robotics, maritime archeology, marine biology and data analysis. The discussion will focus on how the gender gap impacts on their own field of activity and how they see these challenges unfold in other related fields.

2. ‘Unjudge someone’: Following the outline made by our guests, we will engage in deeper conversation on gender inequality. Here, members of the public can engage into deeper conversations (1-to-1 or small groups) with our guests. These are aimed to deconstruct myths/biases but also expose criticalities and challenges that women researchers face.

3. ‘Closing challenge’: each group summarises things that they have found they have in common while talking (especially the work-related challenges). This could open further informal discussion.