The roundtable was chaired by Marta Pulido, member of the Catalan Association for Science Communication and brought together prominent Catalan scientists to share their perspectives and experiences around gender and science.
M. Rosa Palacín spoke about her experience in the battery research field, where she has often found herself as the only woman in high-level scientific committees. She also emphasized the importance of making structural changes to ensure equal participation and visibility of women scientists, and said that it was only possible with the implication of all the society.
She talked about the concept of "cryptogyny", a term referring to the invisibility of women in science and other domains. Several speakers highlighted how this bias continues to manifest today — from the lack of female references in school textbooks to the unequal career progression for women in STEM.
M. Rosa Palacín during the roundtable | Source: Parlament de Catalunya
Researcher Núria Salán presented compelling data about the persistent underrepresentation of women in technical areas such as robotics, engineering and technology, and also in scientific leadership roles and stressed the need for more visible role models in education and public discourse and in history books.
Carme Torras, an expert in robotics, pointed out the difficulty of finding women researchers in her field and advocated for more interdisciplinary and diverse teams, which she believes lead to better science.
Audience during the roundtable | Source: Parlament de Catalunya
Cristina Fillat highlighted the "scissors graph" effect — a noticeable divergence in career paths between men and women over time — explaining how many women in science step aside from leadership positions to maintain work-life balance. She also talked about the research in the bio-field, in which experiments were made only with "male" objects because "females led to more variable results". This has had a huge impact in society, economy and in health. Now things are done differently, but there is still a need to enhance gender perspective in research.
Marta Pulido, representing the Catalan Association for Sciece Communication (ACCC) and the Gender Perspective working group, moderated the discussion and emphasized the importance of science communication in helping to dismantle persistent gender stereotypes.
This event was a valuable opportunity to bring visibility to the structural challenges faced by women in science and to promote collective strategies for a more inclusive research environment.
Exhibition at the Catalan Parliament | Source: Parlament de Catalunya
The event also marked the opening of the exhibition Científiques Catalanes 2.0, a project coordinated by the ACCC that showcases the contributions of 24 women researchers from all scientific disciplines active in Catalunya. The exhibition aims to highlight their scientific achievements and offer inspiring role models for younger generations. The exhibition will be at the Catalan Parliament until May, 30 and then will be at the "Festa de la Ciència" in Barcelona (Born, 31 May and 1 June).
More information:
Watch the video of the event here (Canal Parlament: 06/05/25 18:42 - El Parlament fa una taula rodona sobre l'impacte del biaix de gènere en la ciència amb motiu de la inauguració de l'exposició "Científiques catalanes 2.0")