Gifted women in STEM in Chile - why so few? Marieta Valdivia Lefort participates in research project
13 September 2021

From 2018 to 2021, UCL Americas PhD student Marieta C. Valdivia Lefort participated as research assistant in the FONDECYT project 1181770 "Gifted women in STEM: A longitudinal study about career choice in secondary education", which was conducted in Chile, in association with Universidad de los Andes and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso (PUCV). The project was funded by Chile's National Fund for Science and Technology Development (Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico - FONDECYT)
From the results obtained, the research team, together with the production company EME and the academic outreach initiative Abramos la Academia, created a video aimed at the general public entitled "Why do gifted women not choose STEM careers when they could?", which explores the factors that influence the low rate of gifted women who prefer mathematics and science in their academic choices, and highlights significant elements for future directions of education policy in Chile in terms of gender and development in STEM-related areas.
The research team associated with the project was as follows: the project's principal researcher was María Paz Gómez; the co-researches were Marianela Navarro Ciudad, Annjeanette Martin, María Leonor Conejeros Solar and Karin Roa Tampe; and the research assistants were Marieta Valdivia Lefort, Hernán Castillo Hermosilla, Bárbara Rivera Lino and Andrea González Urbina.
The original video, in Spanish with English subtitles, can be accessed on Youtube via this link.
Links:
Marieta C. Valdivia Lefort | academic profile
Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Cientifico y Tecnologico - FONDECYT | website
Abramos la Academia | website
EME | website
Professor Paulo Drinot | academic profile
Professor Nicola Miller | academic profile
Images:
From top to bottom: still from video and Marieta C. Valdivia Lefort