Being a female scientist is hard, and this is my statement as a scientist from the Global South in the 21st century. It was hard for Mary Anning in the 19th century, for Marie Curie in the 20th century, for Jennifer Doudna and Emmanuelle Charpentier (Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020) in the 21st century. And it is even harder for names like Idelisa Bonnelly, Tebello Nyokong and Ester sabino. What the last three names have in common? They are all female scientists from the Global South.
“Global South” is a term used to denote regions that are out of Europe and North America, mostly characterized by having low-income and for being politically or culturally marginalized. The scientists mentioned above are respectively from the Dominican Republic, South Africa and Brazil. In these countries being a scientist is already a struggle, due to the lack of money incentive from their governments, being a female scientist is even worse due to the misogyny from the societal sexism typical from those regions.
We can strongly say that low economic development and lack of equality measures are the responsible for the lack of gender diversity and inclusion in society and academia. With an increase of both factors, we can expect more women and scientists from the Global South to be among the top?publishing authors in their fields.
But even with all the obstacles imposed by their geographical location, these women kept pursuing the dream of leaving their marks in this still, very sexist environment. That is the case of the brilliant Professor Ester Sabino, from the School of Medicine and Tropical Diseases of the Sao Paulo University, who in the middle of a Global Pandemic was responsible for the genome sequencing of the first case of Covid in Brazil in an unprecedented record time of 48h.
The constant hard fight of women like Professor Ester is an extraordinary example for the younger generation, a generation that can now see themselves as strong scientists and not only as princes of a fairytale book.
But we also need to understand that there is a limit of how much these women can take. The gender bias constantly present in academic recognition and even in their salary, have become the main factor for those brilliant minds to move their research to the “Global North '', a scape of the brilliant minds. Something that has been observed in countries like Brazil, where also political and economic issues become a relevant factor, a negative force, too strong for these women to maintain their research in their country of origin. This has been happening especially among young and well established researchers, who have the option of leaving their country in a pursuit of better opportunities.
But for all those who don’t have that luxury and most of the time their only option is to leave their dream of being a scientist behind, something must be done, something has to change. And that is why initiatives like the Institute REDI4 are so important nowadays, to create awareness and to give us the hope of change and a better future for all female scientists.
Author
Priscilla Bueno - Member of the Communication Directory of the Institute REDI . Brazilian / Italian researcher (BSc., MSc., Dr.), background in Chemistry and Nanotechnology. Editorial experience from working with open access journals in STEM.
References:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/1536504212436479
https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12797
https://exame.com/ciencia/cientistas-da-usp-sequenciam-genoma-do-coronavirus-dois-dias-apos-1o-caso/
https://bricsmagazine.com/en/articles/the-greatest-minds-of-the-developing-world
https://institutoredi.org/en/sobre
