Tem Menina no Circuito: data and results after five years

Abstract

A common scenario to be observed in the exact sciences courses of several universities around Brazil is a room composed mostly of male students. What we see is intense segregation by gender in higher education areas: men predominate in the exact sciences, while women continue professionalizing in health sciences or basic education. Some social aspects may contribute to this segmentation, such as girls being less exposed than boys to subjects related to Physics. As a way of encouraging female high school students to see Physics and other areas of the exact and natural sciences as a career opportunity, the “Tem Menina no Circuito” project was created in 2014, and has been developed since then. In order to understand the project’s influences and contributions from 2014 to 2019, a questionnaire was distributed to the project’s participants. As a conclusion, it was observed that the students’ previous education seems to have influence over their career choice and that the project makes the students look to other areas of expertise as possibilities which were previously unknown to them.