‘We need more women in science and technology’ - Briones

For so long, there have been stereotypes of what courses or fields of study women should engage in. But for Education Secretary Leonor Briones, now is the time to break those barriers and bring in more women - especially into the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).

“Women, if brought to the field of science and technology will be making great contributions along with men,” Briones said during this year’s celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.

Briones noted that the perception that women should engage in fields that are primarily related to their functions such as being a mother or a wife should be changed.

“We are now at the age where we believe that men and women have been equally gifted by God, by nature,” Briones said. “It is something comparable to gifts for research, for innovations, for courage, and for creating new ways of studying the state of our planet, our life, and also facing the challenges confronting us,” she added.

Briones also lauded Filipino women behind science and technology and their contributions to COVID-19 studies. She mentioned the significant contributions of women who made scientific breakthroughs on the COVID-19 pandemic and cited women-led institutions critical to the government's pandemic response like the Philippine Genome Center and the UP-College of Medicine.

Given this, Briones underscored the need to further give women opportunities in science - citing the discrepancy of the number of National Scientists in terms of gender.

“We don’t have as many scientists in the field but those who are in are making huge contributions,” Briones said. “Still, these are not enough, this is still a major challenge to us because there is a great deal of untapped talent, untapped persons who could make even more significant contributions,” she added.

As times continue to change, Briones also urged the stakeholders to support girls who are leaning towards science and technology.

“These challenges are confronting us, and as we face this pandemic, and I doubt that this will be our last pandemic,” Briones said. “There will be more of them, we’ll be needing more scientists, more people in science and technology, we’ll be needing more women,” she ended.