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Abstract

The recent pandemic negatively affected the career development of women scientists drawing attention to the need for urgent actions to ensure that gains in gender equality in science are retained. In Brazil, women scientists contributed much to the fight against COVID-19 by supplying valuable information to the media, combating misinformation and looking for ways to reduce the impacts of the pandemic in homes and workplaces. This paper diagnoses inequalities of opportunities in science and emphasizes science communication as an important tool for increasing the visibility and empowerment of women scientists in Brazil. Science communication can strengthen the visibility, presence and voice of women in society and promote equitable practices in terms of gender and race. It can also enable women scientists to work as role models for the younger generations. This paper goes beyond a brief discussion on the impacts of science communication on increasing diversity and makes recommendations to accelerate gender and ethnic–racial equity within science.

Keywords

Science communication women in science STEM social media EDI (equity diversity and inclusion)COVID-19

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic took the lives of nearly 700,000 Brazilians, but greater harm was caused to women due to the increase in violence due to isolation policies (FBSP, 2021), the greater impact of the virus on pregnant and puerperal women, or because women are the majority among health workers and thus were more exposed to the disease (PAHO, 2021; Fernandes, 2021). At the same time, there were cuts in science and technology and university budgets (Escobar, 2021), attacks against journalism—most instigated by Jair Bolsonaro (the country's president between 2018 and 2022), and his sons, ministers and advisers (ABRAJI, 2022)—in addition to the strengthening of Bolsonaro's anti-vaccine, denialist, pseudoscientific (Da Fonseca et al., 2021) and misogynist speeches (De Carvalho and De Freitas, 2022). It is therefore surprising that the Brazilian population supported its scientists and research institutions, achieving a vaccination rate (in the first complete cycle) of 83%. This proportion was higher than in developed countries such as the United States, Germany, Finland and France and the worldwide average of 71.8% (Holder, 2023).

Science played a leading role in the pandemic, accelerating the production of knowledge about the SARS-CoV-2 virus and developing, producing and applying the first vaccines in just 10 months (Li et al., 2021). It seems reasonable to claim that science had never previously received such wide-ranging and frequent exposure in the news, in financial investment and in everyday conversations. This prominence also appeared in the volume of research produced on the virus, which amounted to 4.3% of international science output in 2020, 8.4% in 2021 and 9.5% in 2022,¹ testifying to the science community's new found determination to obtain, publish and communicate research about the virus and promote dialogue with wider society.

While the pandemic's impact on communication and scholarship was profound, it also seems to have set back the countless achievements made by Brazilian women scientists before February 2020. During the pandemic, women scientists were disproportionately harmed by an overload of domestic, professional and maternal tasks that disrupted their publication of work, for instance, and black women were affected particularly badly (Staniscuaski et al., 2021a). On the other hand, women played an active and relevant role in communicating science across social networks and to the media, thus contributing to public awareness and discussion of the new disease and increasing the overall visibility of scientific work.

In this context, this article describes and analyses the experience of Brazilian women scientists when the pandemic was first declared and the subsequent transformation of their performances during the pandemic. We then reflect on the role of science communication as a means of empowerment, visibility and activism for greater equity and diversity in science. We aim to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: How did women scientists in Brazil engage in science communication during the COVID-19 pandemic?

RQ2: How can science communication work as a tool to empower women scientists?

Women in science in Brazil

In Brazil, women make up the majority (52.2%) of the population (IBGE, 2022) and live, on average, 7 years longer than men, reaching 80.1 years of age (IBGE, 2019a). The same report stated that, in 2019, 51% of all women had a high-school education or above (41.8% of black women and 57% of white women), while, in all age groups, more Brazilian women than men held university degrees, reaching 29.7% of 18–24-year-old women, compared to 21.5% of men. In total, 40.9% of university enrolments were white women, 22.3% were black women, 30.5% were white men and only 15.7% were black men (IBGE, 2019a).

Women also make up the majority of scholars at all levels, from undergraduate to PhD, except for the areas of exact sciences and engineering, where they represent 33% and 40.5%, respectively, while black female PhDs represent only 3% of the total number of PhD candidates (De Assis, 2018). However, when we examine training and academic recognition, we find that women's participation (particularly that of black women) decreases considerably with the increase in the hierarchy due to the well-known effect of the so-called glass ceiling, combined with structural racism, sexism and lack of opportunities (De Assis, 2018). This is illustrated by the Productivity Grant Fellowships offered by Brazil's main science research funding body, the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq). The fellowships offer scholarly recognition of the most productive researchers in each field of knowledge at a particular level, according to peers. On average, 63% of scholarship holders in the six strata are men, but that percentage grows in the upper strata, reaching 73.7% (level 1A) to 88.8% (senior level) (Oliveira et al., 2021). The situation is even bleaker among black women researchers, who receive less than 6.8% of productivity fellowships (Lima et al., 2015). Yet, among university professors, women's participation has grown since 2003 to reach 46.8% in 2019 (IBGE, 2019a).

Even so, in almost all fields, women are less well represented than men in professorships, in administrative management and decision-making positions in teaching and research institutions, and in coordinating large-scale projects. They also receive fewer awards for their work, and increasingly fewer women occupy the higher levels of the scientific professions (Staniscuaski et al., 2021b); mothers and black women are particularly excluded from these echelons. Thus, while women occupy most lower-level science placements from elementary to postgraduate levels, they continue to lag in terms of racial equity and in upper academia. This is due in large part to Brazil's Eurocentric cultural heritage and the structural racism that has imposed unequal access to education and excluded women from such environments for too long.

Women scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic was officially declared on 11 March 2020 (WHO, 2020), and studies have shown that its impacts on the careers of female scientists—particularly mothers and black women—were severe (Calaza et al. 2021; Caldarulo et al., 2022; Staniscuaski et al., 2021a). Until then, Brazil had made numerous advances towards greater gender equity in science, enrolling more females than males at the undergraduate, master's, PhD and postdoctoral levels (Caruzo et al., 2020). Brazilian female scientists accounted for 49% of all scientists of the country between 2011 and 2015 (Elsevier, 2017)—a large advance compared to 38% from 1996 to 2000. Moreover, 40% of them published internationally (De Kleijn et al., 2020)—a proportion only surpassed in Argentina, where more female than male authors achieved this.

During the pandemic, however, women published fewer articles and wrote fewer preprints (manuscripts that have not yet been peer reviewed), increasing gender inequality in authorship. This reduction was greatest among first/lead authors and was particularly acute among early-career researchers (King and Frederickson, 2021; Lerchenmüller et al., 2021). In Brazil, the gap between male and female first authors increased by 30% during the pandemic period for all fields of knowledge (Lerchenmüller et al., 2021). Yet, while women scientists published less during the pandemic, they contributed considerable research efforts and actions to inform the public about COVID-19. They played a leading role in public debate about science, were frequently consulted as sources by journalists and engaged fully in social media and at their universities and research institutions.

Among the examples is the black geneticist, Ester Sabino (from the Institute of Tropical Medicine of the University of São Paulo), who led a team of nine scientists (including eight women) who genetically sequenced the SARS-CoV-2 virus in record time in Latin America. Her team members included Jaqueline Góes de Jesus, an inspirational biomedical scientist who has been honoured with a Barbie doll in her likeness; and Daniela Ferreira, who led the Oxford University group that tested the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine (De Lima et al., 2021), to name but a few of the scientists who received great recognition and visibility in the media.

During the pandemic, women scientists created effective mechanisms to communicate their work. They recommended ways to combat the pandemic, fought misinformation, strengthened the recognition of scientific work and shared data and actions to encourage scientific policies that favoured gender equity. Among these initiatives was the Brazilian Network of Women Scientists (RBMC), which was created in April 2021. With approximately 3500 women scientists, the RBMC aimed to defend women's rights from threats that arose during the pandemic, and to strengthen its members’ performance and visibility in the public debate on science, gender and social vulnerability (RBMC, 2021).

Another organization to emerge was the Parent in Science movement, which aimed to raise issues relating to motherhood (and fatherhood) in scientific careers in Brazil. Created in 2016 by Professor Fernanda Staniscuaski of the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, the group consists of 16 mothers and one father, all of whom are working in different universities and regions of Brazil. The group members gather data and conduct research (Staniscuaski et al., 2020) to evaluate how children affect their parents’ scientific careers and the influence of gender and race at different stages of academic life—issues hitherto ignored in science and technology policies. The group's work has produced concrete changes, particularly during the pandemic. In 2021, information about maternity leave was included in the Lattes Curriculum (the most important curriculum for researchers in Brazil), and this resulted in a cascade of movements that have influenced research grants (Franco et al., 2021) and hiring and promotion processes, and thus represents an important step towards increasing diversity and equality in Brazilian science (Staniscuaski et al., 2021b). In 2020, Parent in Science created the ‘Tomorrow Project’ (Projeto Amanhã, in Portuguese), which aims to ensure that mothers can access higher education and complete their courses. This is a key action to combat the glass ceiling effect, which worsened during the pandemic.²

Engaged women scientists during the pandemic

In recent years, several science communication initiatives have emerged aiming to democratize and show the relevance of scientific knowledge. Science communication both arouses people's interest in science and works as a tool capable of engaging and recruiting more people into scientific endeavours. Therefore, science communication extends beyond simply sharing information but presents models and tools that empower the public and communicators. This relationship became more evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when research institutions, scientists and communicators were engaged in bringing reliable information to the public.

Among the top 10 science voices engaged in pandemic-related activities in 2020 were microbiologist Natália Pasternak, science communicator Luiza Caires, neuroscientist and science popularizer Mellanie Fontes-Dutra and epidemiologist Denise Garrett (Meirelles, 2020). They retained their influential positions regarding COVID-19 awareness on Twitter into 2021 (Meirelles and Rodrigues, 2021). In the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry that investigated irregularities in the context of COVID-19, female scientists such as Pasternak and infectiologist Luana Silva Rodrigues de Araújo contrasted with ‘denialist’ scientists and defenders of the so-called ‘Kit Covid’ (drugs with supposed anti-Covid mechanisms of action for which any scientific evidence was lacking) such as Dr Mayra Pinheiro and oncologist Nise Yamaguchi. Other frequently cited press sources were pneumonologist Margareth Dalcolmo from the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz); physician Sue Ann Costa Clemens of the University of Oxford; Carla Domingues, epidemiologist and former coordinator of the National Immunization Plan; Cristiana Toscano, the only South American member of the Global Vaccine Initiative of the World Health Organization; Dr Rosana Richtmann from the Emílio Ribas Institute of Infectiology; Garrett, who is also vice-president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute; and Pasternak.

During the pandemic, science communication worked as a powerful ally in actions against adversities imposed by the outbreak. It allowed science to transcend the confines of universities and research institutes and shared important information to the public in pleasant and easy-to-understand language. It also increased diversity by showing the relevance of work carried out by women scientists and science popularizers.

Black women in science communication

In Brazil, most of the population (56.2%) is black; black women represent 28% of the overall population (IBGE, 2019b), but only 3% of university professors (De Assis, 2018) and a tiny minority at the highest levels of the career ladder are black women. They are awarded only 2.7% of Productivity Grant Fellowships in Education, whose recipients are mostly women (Da Silva et al., 2021). The lack of data on scholarly and science communication initiatives driven by black people has been discussed by Alves et al. (2021).

Despite the magnitude and relevance of black women's contribution to Brazilian science, institutional racism still imposes barriers that hinder their access to and permanence in spaces of power and decision-making. It is therefore necessary to value and highlight the contributions of black women and other underrepresented groups to the academy. During the pandemic, Nery et al. (2021) described how the ‘Black Women Making Science’ outreach project used social networks to counteract the isolation imposed by the pandemic. During this period, the project made use of Instagram to reach an audience of more than 3000 followers in August 2021. The results showed that social networks and online media could be used to share scientific research carried out by black researchers. This improved visibility resulted in invitations to live debates on the role of black women in science as well as other race-related issues.

One black scientist who played an important role in science communication during the pandemic was Nina da Hora—a computer scientist who specializes in algorithms and algorithmic racism in her work as a researcher at Getúlio Vargas Foundation. Da Hora is also a member of the TikTok Security Advisory Board in Brazil and a columnist for the MIT Technology Review. She was cited in Forbes Brasil's ‘Under-30 list for 2021’ (Melo, 2022). She launched the podcast Ogunhê in February 2020, in which she interviews black scientists from the African continent and diaspora.

Since October 2020, physicist and science communicator Carleane Patrícia has produced notable work on social media (Melo, 2022). A young physicist from the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Patrícia has created Física Preta (Black Physics at @física.preta on Instagram) and has a YouTube channel³ devoted to highlighting the historical contributions of black people to the hard sciences and showing scientists’ everyday routines in the lab. In doing so, she aims to bring science closer to the public in a light-hearted, enjoyable and responsible way.

During the pandemic, chemist and science communicator Kananda Eller reinforced the agency of black scientists and their contributions (Ribeiro, 2021) through her Instagram page (@deusacientista), which has more than 100,000 followers, her TikTok page (86,000 followers) and her YouTube account (Deusa Cientista). Eller shares science content from a perspective that she considers racial by reclaiming scientific knowledge (focusing on chemistry) and accessibly linking it to black ancestry.

Women under attack

It is noticeable that women in general and especially female YouTubers have suffered sexist and hostile attacks (Amarasekara and Grant, 2018), whether working as communicators, journalists, scientists or in other professions. It is therefore unsurprising that the majority of videomakers are men. For instance, in Science Vlogs Brasil, probably one of the largest science channels aggregators worldwide, with more than 61 channels, 77% of videos are produced by men (Velho and Barata, 2020). The underrepresentation of women would possibly deter new communicators. Women who communicate science via YouTube report greater difficulty in sharing their content through the application's algorithms and therefore must work harder to grow their channels (De Mattos, 2020). They mentioned that partnerships with male colleagues have helped them reach new audiences. However, on other social media, such as Instagram and Twitter, most science communicators are women (Riedlinger et al., 2019), perhaps indicating that these platforms constitute a better environment for women to communicate science.

Women scientists and science communicators have also struggled to prove that their work is valuable and relevant to new generations, as they may be attacked by female colleagues (Yammine et al., 2018). Many science communicators strive to produce content that is gender-inclusive (McDonald et al., 2020) since this makes the field more diverse and friendly. However, among biomedical scientists employed at public universities in Brazil, women scientists are less involved in science outreach activities and are less frequently used as information sources by journalists.⁴ They also contact journalists to communicate their work less often. These results are aligned with the relatively low number of women scientists included in TV science programmes in Brazil (Carvalho and Massarani, 2017).

During the pandemic, scientists were attacked simply for spreading scientific information to society and fighting misinformation. Many were subjected to death threats and sexual and physical violence—particularly women, black people and individuals belonging to minority groups (Nogrady, 2021). Under Brazil's denialist government, science communicators and scientists reported experiencing vitriolic attacks during the pandemic.⁵ While lack of training may limit the ability of scientists and experts to communicate science efficiently, their lack of experience in dealing with hate, attacks and negative comments may permanently traumatize and prevent them from carrying out this activity.

Public policy and private initiatives to increase women's presence in STEM and science communication

In Brazil, it is still necessary to invest ineffective long-term public policies that engage girls and women in STEM subjects and career development. However, it is important to point out that the Brazilian government and some institutions have promoted actions that encourage female participation in science and technology, in addition to communicating these practices. When the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MCTI) and the CNPq proposed the National Week of Science and Technology (SNCT) topic ‘Science for the Reduction of Inequalities’(SNCT, 2018), they aimed to inspire young people's involvement in science and technology and promote research as an instrument for social development. The SNCT plays a fundamental role in motivating young people to access scientific knowledge, opening up opportunities to debate inclusion, sustainability and diversity.

Another important initiative is the Women and Science Programme, launched in 2005 and carried out by a group of the Special Secretariat for Policies for Women (SPM), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MCT), the CNPq and the Ministry of Education, among other participants. The programme was created to encourage science output and reflection on gender relations, women and feminism in the country, as well as to promote women's participation in science and academic careers. Among the results of this programme, a range of concrete achievements can be highlighted:

Grants for research projects on gender relations, studies on women and feminism (four iterations)

The ‘Building Gender Equality’ Award (10 iterations)

A workshop titled ‘Thinking about Gender and Science’ (two iterations)

Grants for ‘Girls in Exact Sciences, Engineering and Computing’ projects (two iterations) (Dellagnelo and Stefani, 2022)

Grant MCTI/CNPq/SPM-PR/Petrobras 18/2013 (Girls and Young People doing Exact Sciences, Engineering and Computing), which aimed to boost women's training in careers in exact sciences, engineering and computing in Brazil, combat dropout rates in the first years of these courses and awaken the vocational interest of females during their high-school and undergraduate education

Grant CNPq/MCTI 31/2018 (Girls and Young People doing Exact Sciences, Engineering and Computing). Here, the objectives were to support projects that aimed to contribute significantly to the country's scientific and technological development and innovation, to encourage the participation and training of girls and women for careers in exact sciences, engineering and computing, and to awaken the vocational interest of girls from 6th grade upwards in scientific and technological research. This initiative also aimed to reduce dropouts from undergraduate courses in these fields, as well as to bring middle and high schools closer to higher education institutions. Funding of R$3,000,000 (US$566,000⁶) was allocated to about 100 approved projects (Dellagnelo and Stefani, 2022)

Science communication initiatives titled ‘Women Pioneers in Science’ (seven iterations) and ‘Young Researchers’ (one iteration): a partnership between the CNPq and the SPM that aims to make the history of relevant women researchers visible (CNPq, 2021).

Many science outreach activities, however, end up privileging Eurocentric white knowledge (Dawson, 2014), excluding underrepresented groups and their contribution to science. It is therefore worth mentioning the ‘Insubmissas Negras’ (Unsubmissive Black Women) project, funded by Anna Canavarro Benite, Bárbara Carine Soares Pinheiro and Katemari Diogo Rosa (ABPN, 2020), which aimed to recognize and highlight black scientists by presenting their struggles to produce knowledge and contribute to Brazilian science.

In 2015, the Unibanco Institute, in partnership with the ELAS Fund, the Carlos Chagas Foundation and UN Women, launched a public grant called ELAS in Exact Sciences. The aim was to support initiatives that enable girls’ participation in the technological and exact sciences by promoting gender equality and recognizing schools as a strategic space for change. In all, 170 proposals were received and 10 were approved, receiving a share of R$300,000 (US$56,604); the second public grant awarded 10 out of 113 proposals R$530,000 (US$100,000) (Dellagnelo and Stefani, 2022).

The British Council's Women in Science Programme (British Council, 2018) intends to strengthen links between women in science in Brazil and the United Kingdom at the individual and institutional levels. The programme began in 2018 and aims to build capacity, promote the scientific agenda for women and strengthen national and international networks. Also worth mentioning is the British Council's Girls STEM programme, which intends to influence girls who, even at school age, face the challenge of engaging in science. It deconstructs stereotypes and presents inspiring role models to support education scientists with projects to encourage and expand girls’ participation in STEM in primary and high schools.

Another funder that has promoted diversity and gender participation through grants and support for creative research is the Serrapilheira Institute. Every year, Serrapilheira offers a ‘diversity bonus’ to proposals that support the training and integration of people from underrepresented groups. In 2019, it also launched a ‘Guide to good practices in diversity in science’, which promotes policies and inspires its grantees and other institutions to promote diversity in science. The value of the bonus increased from 2020 onwards.⁷

In 2022, the CNPq launched a grant for science communication and citizen science (no. 61) for marine sciences, which is an example of how women in science and the pandemic affected policymaking. It invested in communication actions linked to UNESCO's Ocean Decade—an initiative that started in 2021—and reserved 30% of its funds to finance projects coordinated by women. It invested R$6,000,000 and approved a total of 11 proposals from 61 submissions, six of them led by women.

Awards

Prizes can also be used to improve the diversity and robustness of science. They can highlight the presence and role of women in research, motivating them to undertake further investigations and share their contributions. Yet, competition based on so-called meritocracy and unequal opportunities should not be encouraged. Historically, women have been underrepresented in science prizes, such as the Centennial Nobel Prize⁸, only 6.4% of which have been awarded to women since 1901.

In Brazil, some awards have encouraged women's participation in science, such as the international Women in Science prize organized by L’Oréal in partnership with the Brazilian Academy of Science and UNESCO (ABC, 2022). Every year, in the national version, young researchers in the fields of life sciences, physics, chemistry and maths are awarded grants of R$50,000 (US$9433) each to support their research. In previous iterations, the programme reinforced inclusion via the innovation of extending the PhD deadline for candidates who were mothers—an important step to motivate women to move forward in their scientific careers. The prize has already been awarded to 110 Brazilian scientists, and more than R$4,700,000 (around US$890,000) has been distributed to successful applicants. In recent years, ethno-racial diversity has increased, but further expansion is required, not only in the choice of laureates but also in the composition of evaluation committees.

A second award in Brazil that takes science communication into account is the José Reis Prize for Science and Technology Communication (CNPq, 2022), which is a stimulus for outreach actions that bring science closer to society. The prize was created in 1978 and has been awarded to 42 scientists or journalists and 20 institutions. Among these winners, 10 were women and just one—Professor Alan Alves Brito from the Institute of Physics at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul—is black. This point is important and calls for reflection, since most journalists, communicators, university students and scientists are women. An important point to consider is that women tend not to value their activities and contributions due to the relative scarcity of female role models and are less likely to submit proposals or sign papers as first authors (Rissler et al., 2020). It is therefore long overdue for the CNPq award committee to recognize women as important contributors to science and science communication.

Conclusions

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Brazilian women scientists engaged in science communication by sharing posts and articles over social networks, by working as media sources or by taking part in governmental investigations of fake news. They acted as both audible and visible science communicators and enabled changes in science policies, both in order to maintain their own achievements and to guarantee equity and diversity in science. Science communication, in this sense, has been shown to be a platform with enormous potential for guaranteeing the rights of women scientists and their recognition in society as role models and effective social actors.

Science communication can be an important tool in increasing diversity and combating racism when used to fight prejudices rooted in society and within academia. Its interdisciplinary character permits the discussion of critical issues, strengthening and stimulating actions that support the presence and permanence of women in science. When women tell their stories, they are able to involve others in their narratives, and their voices can thus be multiplied and transmitted to different spaces. Media training and science communication should therefore be encouraged from undergraduate level upward to empower women and promote their visibility. Institutions and research-funding agencies should finance and value science communication as part of scientists’ and researchers’ activities by recognizing their social impact and influence on younger generations.

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article.

Notes

Author biographies

Germana Barata is a science communication researcher at the Laboratory of Advanced Studies in Journalism (Labjor), Centre for the Development of Creativity (Nudecri) at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil. She was a visiting faculty member at Simon Fraser University, Canada, in 2017 and 2018. She is a member of the PCST global network and a Council Committee member of the Brazilian Association of Scientific Editors (ABEC). She has focused her research on social media, open science, open access and altmetrics as ways to track the social impact of science.

Zélia Ludwig is a professor at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF) and CEPEM-UFJF coordinator (editorial board of the journal QUARKS: Brazilian Electronic Journal of Physics, Chemistry and Materials Science). Her research focuses on optical and spectroscopic properties of nanostructured materials for applications in optoelectronics and photonics. She also works on gender issues, discussing underrepresentation of women in science, especially black women. She is also a member of the Parent in Science movement, which works to expand the discussion on challenges and consequences of motherhood and scientist careers in Brazil with the aim of identifying the barriers and defining actions to reverse the problem.

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Science communication to empower women in science: The case of Brazil

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Women in science in Brazil

Women scientists during the COVID-19 pandemic

Engaged women scientists during the pandemic

Black women in science communication

Women under attack

Public policy and private initiatives to increase women's presence in STEM and science communication

Awards

Conclusions

Footnotes

Declaration of conflicting interests

Funding

Notes

Author biographies

References