It is said that women lack the talent, time and temperament for Stem subjects. False. And Women in Action is helping to create new role models.
On 11 February 2015, the United Nations established the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, to debunk stereotypes, false myths and prejudices about the supposed lack of female aptitude for Stem careers — an acronym for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It is, in fact, a remarkably stubborn belief that women do not possess the three Ts needed to succeed in these fields: time, meaning enough of it; temper, meaning the right character; and talent, meaning the intelligence required. In short, science and technology are supposedly "a man's world", full stop. And yet examples of women who have debunked the three-T myth, including in our own country, are far from scarce.
Amalia Ercoli-Finzi, born in 1937, showed a passion for engineering from childhood: she would take apart objects around the house — her bicycle in particular — reassemble them, and try to understand how they worked. After secondary school, her family wanted her to become a mathematics teacher, but she held firm, obtained her father's permission to enrol at the Politecnico di Milano, and in 1962 became the first Italian woman to graduate in Aeronautical Engineering. Yet she had no interest in aircraft — she wanted to focus on space: after all, it was the 1960s, the era of the race to the Moon. Amalia went on to hold the chair in Orbital Mechanics and, thanks to her enormous talent, collaborated for many years with the American space agency (Nasa) and the European space agency (Esa), contributing, among other projects, to the Rosetta probe mission to study the composition of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Even today, at 88, Ercoli-Finzi continues to collaborate with the Politecnico di Milano, researching methods for landing a human crew on Mars and the feasibility of creating a botanical garden on the Moon.
In interviews, the aerospace engineer explains that the secret of her success lies in three metals: an iron constitution, nerves of steel to withstand the pressure of those who would like to see women fail, and a golden husband "who encourages you". The scientist has also passed her passion on to the only daughter among her five children, Elvina. Born in 1976, she graduated with honours from both the Politecnico di Milano and the École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (Ensta) in Paris, and holds a doctorate in Nuclear Engineering. After a period devoted to applied research, Finzi is today a senior manager at the world's largest producer of lenses and eyewear. Among the activities mother and daughter share is the writing of popular science books aimed at inspiring girls and young women to engage with Stem subjects. And their work is vital, because the gender gap in scientific and technological occupations remains far too wide. The numbers confirm it.
According to the Deloitte Observatory 2024, across Europe only one in four students chooses to pursue a Stem course of study. And even though women make up almost 55 per cent of the entire university population on the continent, among Stem students they account for just 31.9 per cent — less than a third. When the individual fields are analysed separately, the gap widens further: female engineers represent only 27 per cent (one in four students), while in the Ict — Information and Communications Technology — field, women account for just 20 per cent (one in five).
But why does this happen? According to the European report Addressing the gender gap in Stem education across educational levels, it is partly down to family and school environments, where cultural biases and gender stereotypes remain deeply entrenched. Conversely, the document highlights how growing up in a family environment, or attending school programmes, that expose girls and young women to technical and scientific subjects from an early age helps them to engage with Stem pathways.
According to 2024 data from Italy's Ministry of University and Research (Mur), the figures in Italy are slightly above the European average. Women who have chosen a Stem career account for 39.2 per cent of the total number of students; over the past five years, female enrolments in science and technology faculties have risen by 12 per cent. There is also good news regarding Stem doctoral scholarships awarded to women: the figure stands at 42 per cent, five points above the European average. As elsewhere on the continent, however, problems multiply when it comes to career prospects.
According to a McKinsey report, women hold just 22 per cent of all technology jobs in European companies. Deloitte, meanwhile, finds that discrimination in the workplace has affected at least half of young female Stem workers (in non-Stem professions the figure drops to just over a third). The gender gap extends to salary too — lower for women — despite equivalent roles. Half of companies acknowledge this, but seven out of ten believe it is the State that should do more, by providing, for example, parental support and tax incentives. The glass ceiling, reinforced by bias and prejudice, remains very thick indeed.
One of the solutions suggested by the European report for reducing gender differences in science-, innovation- and technology-related jobs is to provide a greater number of successful female role models: it is therefore vital to support the careers of women working in these fields and to demonstrate that having what it takes to lead a hi-tech company is not a matter of gender. But the three-T prejudice is ever-present: innovative businesses led by women are still far too few and receive a vanishingly small minority of available funding.
Among the programmes designed to reverse this situation is Women in Action, by LifeGate Way. The project, now in its second edition, aims to encourage female entrepreneurship in sectors with a high innovation content. It is a free, equity-free programme open to women of any age and background who are studying, leading startups, or thinking about an innovative entrepreneurial project in the field of environmental and social sustainability.
The first edition was a great success, attracting 200 applications. In this second edition too, updated from the previous one, there are three objectives: to accompany women entrepreneurs along the journey from idea to go-to-market; to provide the tools to translate the project into practice; and to build soft skills.
The call for applications, opened last 27 November 2024, will close on 14 February 2025, with the selection of 16 pre-candidates. Following a Women in Action day scheduled for 12 March, the actual acceleration programme will begin on 4 April, with nine selected participants: three startups, three emerging entrepreneurs and three students who will be entitled to 150 hours of training, mentorship and coaching. At the end of the programme, on 26 June, the new innovative women-led projects will finally be celebrated. One more tool to break down the "three T bias".
