/ Innovation and gender: Alessandri participated in AIPLA’s Women in IP global networking event

In order to celebrate Women in IP, our firm proudly participated in the Global networking event, organized by AIPLA (American Intellectual Property Law Association).

Carolina Sepúlveda, chief of staff of Inapi, was our special guest and she talked about the initiatives that Inapi is developing to increase the participation of women in the world of innovation.

Alessandri’s partner, Santiago Ortúzar, talked with Carolina during a pleasant meeting in which they spoke of the contribution and role of women in the development of scientific projects and how as a society we can strengthen women´s participation in the innovation ecosystem.

Santiago Ortúzar mentioned some figures that sadly show the low presence of women in the areas of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in Chile.

• Although Women represent 53% of higher education admissions.
• Only 1 in 4 of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics enrollments in 2018 are women.
• Only 1 out of 5 admissions in Technology in 2018 is female.
• For the 2019 process, 52.6% of those who completed the PSU were women.
• Only 27% of those who take the PSU in Physics are women in the 2018 process. Source: DEMRE.
• Only 9% of the 2018 admissions in Electrical Engineering are women.
• According to a study in Chile, there will be a 31% deficit of IT professionals by 2019, a figure that would reach 19,000 vacancies.
• 5% of women work in Technology areas.
• The gender gap in the 2018 undergraduate admissions in Technology is 75% to the disadvantage of women.

Source: Ministry of Women.

According to Carolina Sepúlveda, currently women have shown articulating roles within scientific teams and have shown great initiative in relation to projects that have a high social impact. The head of Inapi’s cabinet commented that they have been invited by the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Science to be part of a group of experts that will make recommendations for the Road Map for a Gender Equality Policy in Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, which seeks to promote measures that will increase access and allow the development of women researchers under equal conditions.

The many participants commented on what should be the future measures to promote women’s innovation, attracting talent, the innovation generation gap and future forecasts on innovation policies.

The American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA) celebrates every year the “Women in IP global networking event”. If you want to know more about Women in IP, click on the AIPLA link.