The conference is a Regional Event within the initiative Women in Data Science (WIDS)) from Stanford University, whose objective is to inspire and give visibility to women who stand out for their exceptional work in the field of Data Science, and which was attended by executives from renowned companies such as Atos, Womenalia, everis and Eva Levy & Partners.

In the first part, after an introduction on this initiative offered by Carmen de Pablos Heir, Professor of Business Organization at URJC and ambassador of the WIDS initiative. we had the pleasure of having Eva Levy, Managing Partner of Eva Levy & Partners. 

Eva, who has recently been named for the third time as one of the 25 most influential women, told us about the scant presence of women in scientific and technical fields and provided truly overwhelming data: 54% of women who can access higher education, only 0,5% graduate in technological disciplines. 

Likewise, Levy referred to pioneering women in this field, who, however, did not have the expected academic offspring, such as Ada Lovelace, Hedy Lamarr or Evelyn Berezin.

During her presentation, Eva insisted that being outside the leading areas leads women to remain behind and below their possibilities, and from her point of view: "we must not allow fear or caution to be the ones that decide the studies and subsequently the subsequent steps”.

After Levy's very interesting talk, María Teresa Ballestar de las Heras, Associate Director of Data Strategy at MSD, and Associate Professor at URJC, explained the importance of including profiles of women in Data Science to create value.

During her speech, she again highlighted data that represents the scarcity of women in these sectors, only 15-22% of professionals in Data Science are women. 

According to her, there are multiple factors that cause these data and that are developed in the different stages of the life cycle, such as the lack of female references, stereotypes and socially pre-established gender roles or even other conscious and unconscious biases that influence the women from an early age and from their own family environment. "Girls begin to have a perception of gender roles in professions from 9-10 years old," she sentenced Ballestar.

During her presentation, María Teresa told us that there is research like that of Breda and Napp from 2019, which affirms that there is no less talent among women for these disciplines. The point is that girls who are good at math are also good at humanities, and that is why her decision is influenced by the biases to which she has been exposed since childhood. Likewise, he explained to us that to these biases that influence the decision, there is the fact that Data Science does not have a positive image among students, and that is due to a problem of ignorance about these areas of knowledge, and it is in this point where universities and companies play a very important role.  

During the Seminar, we also had the presence of Lucila Ballarino, General Director of Womenalia who, after a short introduction about her professional career, placed special emphasis on the need for female references so that girls decide to study these disciplines. 

She supported her argument in her personal experience, as she told us, she was a very curious and questioning girl and needed to understand the reasons behind everything that happened. “At first glance, I had all the components to be a potential data scientist, but I would never have opted to dedicate myself to data analytics if it had not been for other people and women who have crossed my path, because I was never good in mathematics and I thought that to dedicate myself to analyzing data I had to have a good command of mathematics. After 16 years dedicating myself to this, I have been discovering that it is not necessary to have such advanced knowledge because the good questions are the ones that make it possible to achieve good results” the Argentine explained to us.

 According to Lucila, successful companies make decisions based on data. And it is here where women have a universe of opportunities due to the analytical qualities that they can contribute so much. “Generally, women feel alone and we also feel self-conscious in these areas, and we limit ourselves more in terms of job opportunities. And at this point, where technology platforms can help, because they become a place where women can help and support each other to go further,” she pointed out.

After the break, Sandra Sans Estrada, Partner in charge of the global area of ​​infrastructure Services at everis, and Mayte Hidalgo, Director of Strategy and AI at everis, explained to us that their company works to be an inclusive company with diversity and is committed to incorporating women supporting various initiatives even from an early age.

Likewise, they told us about the most demanded jobs of the future, among which are STEM professionals and disciplines focused on data management, and they offered a truly heartbreaking piece of information, and that is that the impact of the pandemic has hit the female sector, since women in Spain performed jobs unrelated to the knowledge society.

For them, women have a path full of challenges, but also opportunities, since now the girls can study careers that in the coming years will have a high impact on the economic activity of all societies.

As a climax to the day, we had a very interesting colloquium on the role of the University in the training and guidance of women towards careers focused on Data Science, moderated by the director of the Master in SAP Logistics Project Management of the Rey Juan Carlos University, Mónica de Pablos Heredero, SAP Director at Atos, and also ambassador of the WIDS initiative. 

During this debate, questions were addressed such as what initiatives can be carried out to reduce the gap between women and men and especially women with disabilities, who suffer even more from this problem, the reasons why there are trainings only for women, and the very high cut-off marks currently existing to study STEM disciplines.

Around 1.200 people connected live and the reception to the event was impressive. 

If you could not connect and would have liked to see it, you can enjoy the event at this link: TV URJC