Professor Pamela Guevara appeared in a reportage from El Sur newspaper titled “Women in Science: family determines the freedom to dare“, along with two other young professionals of the area. In this, the academic and current Biomedical Civil Engineering Director talks about her time as a student at Universidad de Concepción, the gender gap in her major, and the importance of her parents’ support and motivation for her to study whatever she wanted, no matter the prejudice associated to a woman in science.

When I was a kid my interest was always towards science. And my parents always encouraged me to study whatever I wanted, and they really liked that I choose engineering, not only because my dad was one, but also because they know I liked everything about engineering.

The article aims to highlight the importance of family support in women and young female students that wish to develop in science and technology, with the goal of overcoming the prejudices associated to them in STEM (Sciente, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) vocations. Regarding that, professor Pamela says:

Since very little, girls are encouraged and congratulated by looking pretty, smile or having a nice gesture; and the boys when they achieve concrete objective, like solving a puzzle…

…I believe that the fear to participate or encourage STEM vocations in girls and young females is because there is ignorance that, in fact, there are no difference between the development of boys and girls, as people usually think.

Source: Diario El Sur. Complete reportage in http://www.elsur.cl/impresa/2018/04/24/full/cuerpo-principal/16/.