An entire week of informative events, workshops, and forums took place.

As part of the commemoration of International Women’s Day, the Yachay Tech Student Welfare Coordination organized “Equities” a week dedicated to remembering the fight for women’s rights. The week, from March 5 to March 8, 2018, consisted of the opening of spaces through daily events: talks, workshops, forums, among others. The objective of the events was to promote International Women’s Day in the university community as a date to give visibility to the fight for gender equality. The events were attended by professors from the University as well as guests from different national institutions.

The events began with the workshop “Dejando Huella” on Monday, March 5. This event was planned as a space for self-knowledge. It continued with a cinema forum to analyze the movie Les Suffragettes (The Suffragettes). The film tells the story of the fight of suffrage groups of women in the United Kingdom at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. In addition, it reveals the struggles and sacrifices that these women had to make to get an answer to their claims of rights. After the film screening, the attendees had a space to share their thoughts about the film and the stories of each character.

The events continued with a talk about women and science, led by Hortensia Rodríguez, Dean of the School of Chemical Sciences and Engineering and member of the Board of Trustees, Graciela Salum, and Sofia Carvalho, professors from the School of Biological Sciences and Engineering and Elisa Piispa , professor from the School of Geological Sciences and Engineering. In this discussion group, the faculty answered questions from colleagues and students about their experience in academia and how gender inequalities are still visible in this sector.

Finally, the week ended with two talks: the first by Dr. Carmita Álvarez, Academic Counselor of the Higher Education Council, and the second by Professor Francisco Javier Álvarez, from the School of Biological Sciences and Engineering. Dr. Álvarez held a talk on the national figures of representation of women in academia and the legal instruments that guarantee equitable access to academic positions and education in higher education institutions. The main conclusions of the talk were that, despite the existence of legal instruments to promote equitable representation of gender, the percentages in hierarchical positions are still low. In addition, the percentages of academic dropouts are still higher in women, which greatly reduces the numbers of women graduates. After Dr. Carmita Álvarez’s talk, Professor Álvarez, gave a talk about the lack of gender equality that still exists.