Women In Geothermal – GEOFIT Project aims for gender equality
Gender issues and women inclusion are of paramount importance and focus on many modern life activities, including business, education, government, and research. By considering gender diversity, a positive impact on productivity, real life problem-solving and innovation improvements in many sectors can be achieved. As a result of bringing a more balanced share of women in productivity and research fields, the great challenges of our time, from health to energy management, from climate change to sustainable communities may be faced.
While more and more women are reaching senior levels in science and engineering, the aspiration of reaching gender equality is not yet fulfilled. Data from the She Figures 2012 report, a major EU publication that presents Europe-wide data on women in science from tertiary education through to the job market, show that there are nowhere near enough women at the top levels of science and research.
GEOFIT Project aims to be an opportunity window to demonstrate that European Research and Innovation projects can balance the gender equality. In GEOFIT, the partners involved are composed by multidisciplinary and inclusive teams where women play important roles from administrative, making decisions and technical to scientific and innovation.
The GEOFIT Women in Geothermal series has been created to emphasize and highlight the women contribution behind this important project. This interview series starts with the participation of Ana Benedicto from UNE, The Spanish Association for Standardization.
Ana Benedicto considers that Geothermal Energy:
Represents a renewable energy source with huge potential, which is not enough exploited so far, and which needs of more standardization actions to be introduced and applied in more sectors.
