The Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, CEDENNA, joined four ministries to promote the work of women in Chilean mining and contribute from science to the development of this important sector, through the signing of a commitment letter signed during the ceremony closing ceremony of the National Women and Mining Roundtable.
The agreement was signed by the ministries of Mining, Education, Women and Gender Equity, Labor and Social Welfare, as well as CEDENNA. It represents an inter-ministerial work commitment to promote the participation of women in the different scenarios of the mining ecosystem, including STEM women.
The Minister of Mining, Marcela Hernando, stated that "to the work that has been carried out with the Ministry of Women and Gender Equality and also with the Labor portfolio, it has been decided to incorporate Education, which seems to us to be a tremendous acquisition because the Board Nacional is advancing in thematic axes and one of them points to this area, precisely to support training from high schools with training for young people who later join mining companies, both public and private.
Doctor Dora Altbir, director of CEDENNA, thanked the opportunity to participate in this agreement and in the Mining Roundtable, which "for us is tremendously important. I work in a nanoscience and nanotechnology center, part of what is called hard sciences and who share with mining the fact that women are quite underrepresented in these areas".
"For us it is a pleasure and a pride to be invited, first to listen because I am sure that there are many strategies from the world of mining that we will be able to learn about and from which we can learn a lot. Without a doubt, we will have great learning from what that progress has been made at the table and we trust that we can contribute from our experience".
For his part, the Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Ávila, pointed out that this initiative "is part of the call made by President Gabriel Boric to coordinate inter-ministerially and that better than doing it through an agenda that places equity and gender equality Above all, especially when we consider that the world of mining is highly masculinized and it is important to advance more women in this area”
The Undersecretary for Women and Gender Equality, Luz Vidal, celebrated the creation of the tables, noting that “we want gender mainstreaming to be effective. The Ministry of Mining is doing so, seeing and incorporating more portfolios so that we can have, from all areas, in which women can be incorporated, security, inclusion and justice”.
Committee work
The Education commission has defined goals to support the participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers and also in the mining sector; achieve vocational support, teacher accompaniment and links with the productive sector in the medium term; and explore the projected demand for labor and industry specialties and correlate them with formative careers.
Meanwhile, the MALS prevention commission, within the framework of ILO 190 convention, will work on a manual in clear and friendly language, which will serve as an input for the rest of the industry.
For its part, the diversity and inclusion commission aims to create a manual of recommendations and a repository of good industry practices to advance in these areas.
Finally, the indicators and measurement commission has as its goal the continuity of the National Board and to monitor progress, articulating commitments, creating a set of indicators and working to incorporate the country's medium and small mining companies.
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