Tem Menina no Circuito: data and results after five years

Abstract A common scenario to be observed in the exact sciences courses of several universities around Brazil is a room composed mostly of male students. What we see is intense segregation by gender in higher education areas: men predominate in the exact sciences, while women continue professionalizing in health sciences or basic education. Some social aspects may contribute to this segmentation, such as girls being less exposed than boys to subjects related to Physics. As a way of encouraging female high school students to see Physics and other areas of the exact and natural sciences as a career opportunity, the “Tem Menina no Circuito” project was created in 2014, and has been developed since then. In order to understand the project’s influences and contributions from 2014 to 2019, a questionnaire was distributed to the project’s participants. As a conclusion, it was observed that the students’ previous education seems to have influence over their career choice and that the project makes the students look to other areas of expertise as possibilities which were previously unknown to them.

摘要 巴西多所高校的精确科学课程中普遍存在这样的场景：课堂学生群体以男性为主。当前高等教育领域存在显著的性别分化现象：男性在精确科学领域占据主导地位，女性则更多投身于健康科学或基础教育领域的职业发展。部分社会因素可能促成了这种分化，例如女生相较男生接触物理学相关课程的机会更少。为鼓励高中女生将物理学及其他精确科学、自然科学领域视作职业发展方向，「Tem Menina no Circuito」项目于2014年创立并持续推进至今。为明晰该项目在2014至2019年间的影响与贡献，研究团队向项目参与者发放了调查问卷。研究结论显示，学生的既往教育经历似乎会对其职业选择产生影响，且该项目让学生意识到了诸多此前未曾了解的其他专业领域的发展可能性。