About Us
We, the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), CIC nanoGUNE and the Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM), present the initiative "Pride in Science/Harrotasuna Zientzian/Orgullo en ciencia" aimed at giving visibility to the LGBTQIA+ collective in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). We want to actively contribute to demolishing old stereotypes, giving voice and visibility to a plural reality that we want the future of science to be like.
We are committed to creating a future full of diversity, based on equal opportunities, which we think is the only possible way forward.
Thus, in 2019 we joined the international movement PrideinStem - pride in STEM celebrating Pride in Science day and since 2020 we collaborate with PRISMA, the association for diversity affective-sexual and gender in Science, Technology and Innovation (CTI).
¿Why Pride in Science?
The scientific environment, like many other environments, is competitive and very heteropatriarchal. The stereotyped figures of success still persist (cis male, heterosexual and white), but it is gradually giving way to a broader and richer model of what a scientist is supposed to be.
In the area of physics specifically, the American Physical Society published a list in 2016 of the ways in which LGTBIQA+ physicists have a more difficult professional experience than their cis-hetero counterparts.
Studies have shown that many LGBTIQA+ university professors and researchers have not come out in their departments, and that doing so could negatively affect their careers. This is of particular importance in the STEM field, as work cultures and professional environments can often exclude or alienate the existence of the LGTBIQA+ community and individuals within it.
The classic idea maintains that in Science only Science should be discussed, without sexual orientation or gender being an issue to be addressed. However, there are many voices that have been raised in favor of making the LGTBIQA+ collective visible in the STEM area.
A report on a 2015 survey of US college students found that gay science students were more likely than non-LGTBIQA+ students to change their major to a non-science field. Some scholars who study LGTBIQA+ issues commented that LGTBIQA+ students face social barriers to studying science that non-LGTBIQA+ people do not experience.
With this evidence at hand, DIPC, CIC nanoGUNE and CFM, within the social responsibility of our centers, want to help alleviate these inequalities and generate friendly environments for scientific staff, whatever their race, gender, sexual orientation or reality may be. A paradigm shift is essential so that the new generations, in all their diversity, find an attractive option in the scientific world of the future.
