Cantabria has organized their stakeholder group according to the three focus areas connected to the project: Entrepreneurship, job access, and career progression and innovation.
The sub-groups in Cantabria’s stakeholder group met between July 17-20 to start work on the pillars of the FEMINA project.
The session started with brainstorming surrounding barriers for women participation in high tech sectors in Cantabria. Possible barriers mentioned, was a majority male presence in the business sector, educational barriers with a low share of women in STEM-education, cultural factors, few female role models, low motivation, family conciliation, and a lack of institutional support.
The participants draw these barriers from personal experience, as well as from recent studies, press, and external information. Although 90% of applicants for tech-jobs are men, this is sometimes completely opposite in social and health jobs, which are typically far more female-dominated.
To help lower these barriers, the participants put forward three broad areas of focus, namely education, visibility and to emphasize the theme in public policies. Introducing changes in corporate and social behavior are seen as challenging and is not seen as feasible by some. Dissemination activities in school and family to enlighten people on gender stereotypes could be a vital activity.
