Bringing girls closer to studying scientific disciplines (science, technology, mathematics and engineering) may be the key to reduce the gender gap in the world of work.
This is the basic message that guided last week's online debate, promoted by Costanza Turrini — creator of the Girls Code It Better project, and Barbara Di Pasqua — Administrator of Officina Futuro MAW Foundation.

The event, in which the Deputy Minister of Education - Anna Ascani, also took part, saw institutions, schools and businesses discuss possible solutions in terms of the digital gender gap.
The gender stereotypes that girls are not inclined to technical-scientific disciplines profoundly influence school choices, limiting their presence in the ICT sector, on which the future of our country will be at stake.
As highlighted during the event by Michela Carlana — Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University — In our country, 57% of graduates are women, but of these only a percentage lower than 30% are women in the STEM field.
Digital will become an essential language in the future and it is increasingly a priority to guarantee access to it also to girls. The project Girls Code It Better was created precisely to bring girls closer to STEM disciplines, involving them as early as middle school, to intercept them before choosing the next school path.

As emerged from the comparison between different points of view during the online debate, the pillars of GCIB can really be exported and help move our country towards the future, because:
• create a system between different schools and between schools, institutions and companies
• because experimenting with single-sex paths can help reduce the influence of stereotypes
• because training skills facilitates the enhancement of different types of intelligence
• why it is important to overcome the dichotomy between scientific and humanistic subjects.
But, first of all, because they help girls imagine a different future. As Greta Fava Cervellati — Girl GCIB at the Minghetti Classical High School in Bologna — said, “Now I see the possibility of choosing my future without being influenced by the high school I'm attending.”

Even Deputy Minister Ascani in her speech emphasized that the development of our country passes from reduce all forms of gender inequalities present in our society, also thanks to initiatives such as GCIB: “Covid has put a magnifying glass on inequalities of different types, which in our country are also gender inequalities [...] among many there is the access of women to scientific disciplines and to all jobs in the STEM area. [...] A problem that can also be solved through projects such as Girls Code It Better, which poses the problem of “making girls like” these subjects from a young age. Then there's a lot of work to do next. And certainly this project goes in the direction that the Ministry of Education is proposing to follow: we are really working on the gender gap in STEM. [...] If the study of these disciplines is not encouraged, the loss is not only of women. GDP is being lost.”
To review the online event STEM TODAY LEADER TOMORROW, click here
Do you too contribute to the change and #segnalaciunascuola to be included in next year's GCIB project!

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