Equity and Diversity

Patricia Menéndez. Powered by the Story theme for Hugo. — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:00:00 -0800

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “Women account for a minority of the world’s researchers”

“Less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women”
“Women are missing from the ranks of higher education and research”
According to the World Bank, “Gender equality is a critical component of economic growth”. However, when looking at the Women, Business and the Law index, Only six countries have equal rights for men and women according to the “Women, Business and the Law 2019” report (Table 2, page 9)
A new global study on Global Media Monitoring has found that only 19% of the science and technology experts highlighted in the media are women.

Homeward Bound

Patricia Menéndez. Powered by the Story theme for Hugo. — Mon, 08 Apr 2019 16:00:00 -0500

I have had the priviledge to be selected together with another 99 women to take part in Homeward Bound. Homeward bound is a groundbreaking leadership program for women with a background in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine).

The program was founded by Australian leadership expert Fabian Dattner in 2015 and it is currently training its fourth cohort towards achieving its 10-year goal of equipping a 1000-strong global collaboration of women to proactively lead, influence, and contribute to policy and decision-making to better shape the future of our planet.

We need inspirational role models

Inspirational female role models are something that I have been searching for throughout my entire career. This has definitely being something missing. I find myself very lucky to have had wonderful mentors but unfortunately not many of them have been females in the field of mathematics and statistics. While I have now become a mentor myself, I further realised how few female role models we have.

My contribution

I want to tell my story and share my journey to inspire females to pursue careers in STEMM and in particular in mathematics and statistics. Our voices need to be heard at all levels of policy and decision-making, especially those concerning the future of our planet and the care of our environment.

Homeward Bound in Practise

During about 12 months, the program includes:

Monthly online meetings, during which coaching and direction are provided.
Team projects on global issues of concern for women.
Visibility awarness and exercises (individually and in groups).
Learning and enhancing the understanding of what it takes to genuinely collaborate.
Understanding sense of self.
Building visibility and science communication skills.
Work on personal strategy mapping, purpose, and values.
Peer coaching and collaboration.

The program culminates in a voyage to Antarctica, focusing on leadership in practise, where the participants will complete their personal strategy maps, work towards building their visibility skills in practise and learn about the art of science communication. Participants will also be part of a “Think tank” and a Science Symposium at sea.

The focus of the voyage is to join forces together with the other participants and faculty members to develop a world class leadership capability and strong network where participants would be ready to lead, mentor others, and contribute to the decisions that affects our planet.

Patricia Meneéndez

Equity and Diversity

Homeward Bound

We need inspirational role models

My contribution

Homeward Bound in Practise