Hungry for what? The (in)visibility of girls and women prevented from acting in Hard-Science Education

Abstract:

The present paper aims to problematize the feminine minority in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, as well as how girls and women are (not) encouraged to engage in such fields, especially in Mathematics Education. In order to achieve this goal, the document by the United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), entitled Cracking the code has been analyzed. That document describes how women are being inserted in these fields by drawing a panorama of girls’ participation and performance from every region, thus identifying some influential factors concerning individual, family, school, and social aspects. The document integrates the global agenda, which focuses on achieving 30 specific goals, the 5th of which is the promotion of gender equality. Thus, it is possible to affirm that the interest in female minority is not random, and that the main factors at play can deconstruct this reality.

Keywords:
Mathematics education; Women; Gender equality; UNESCO; Global agenda