At the school of Parity, awareness-raising activities in schools

We Are here – against gender stereotypes in the world of engineering is the project with which the Polytechnic of Turin has decided to get involved on Equal Opportunities and the inclusion of all and all in the disciplines STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics).

Gender inequality is still a very present phenomenon in Italy both in terms of pay and career, and in terms of the choice of the course of study. This is an issue that concerns the field of science and technology, where there is still a serious shortage of employment compared to the European average, especially for women.

A trend that cannot be reduced to a question of individual preferences, without considering its origins: the social and cultural prejudices that act directly on the choices of thousands and thousands of girls and girls, from an early age.

For this reason, the We Are here campaign – we are here, we are you – involves the students of 20 classes of the Higher Schools of Turin and the Province, together with 10 classes of the Middle Schools, in debates, role-playing games and activities in the presence of the Engineering students of the Polytechnic. To contrast also with their testimony the gender stereotype according to which women would be less suited than men for STEM.

WeAreHERe was founded in 2019 and in these two years of concrete action has led to the largest ever number of new students enrolled in graduate programs in Engineering (over 1300 for a.a. 2019/2020), up to reach 26% for the year 2021/22.