For the fourth consecutive year, within the framework of LIMA EXPRESA’s Equity Week, the concessionaire together with Statkraft Peru and Lima Airport Partners (LAP) jointly held the webinar #MujeresQueConstruyen, a meeting to expose the participation of women in careers STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), what is the national reality and how we can contribute from the private sector to close the gender gaps in this problem.
Between January 2020 and January 2021, female labor participation fell 8%, while male participation fell just 2.7%, according to the INEI. This figure reflects that many more women than men have left the labor market as a result of the economic crisis in Peru. In this sense, events such as this one, which seek to promote equality and female participation at the local level and from each business sector, become more important.
During the event, the stories of leading women who are working to make a difference from the private sector and create more equal opportunities were revealed, who shared their testimonies about how they chose a STEAM career, the barriers they overcame, their main achievements, and how we can continue to promote female participation in this sector.
Among the exhibitors were Paty Jara, Manager of Construction Projects at LIMA EXPRESA; Ariana Sierra, LAP Design Manager and; Alessandra Meza, Jr. Engineer at Statkraft Peru. The discussion was moderated by Pamela Navarro, director and founder of Atalla Legal.
In addition, the CEOs of each company joined to share the measures that are promoted in their organizations: Laurent Cavrois, CEO of LIMA EXPRESA; Juan José Salmón, CEO of Lima Airport Partners (LAP); and Juan Antonio Rozas, CEO of Statkraft Peru.
Paty Jara, Manager of Construction Projects at LIMA EXPRESA, said “One of my motivations for studying civil engineering was because I saw positive changes for the beneficiary population through construction. The constructions that influenced me were roads, bridges, river defenses. However, I also found barriers such as: gender stereotype for the appointment to the position of project manager in the management of major works, among others”.
For her part, Ariana Sierra Ariana Sierra, LAP Design Manager, commented that in order to continue promoting the inclusion of women in STEM careers, it would be possible to: “Educate parents and teachers so that they can broaden their perspective when guiding young women in professional decisions, Implement internships in companies for girls of school age to allow them to live the future experience in STEM careers, promote contests or initiatives from the government to develop storybooks, plays with success stories of women in these professions”.
Meanwhile, Alessandra Meza, Jr. Engineer at Statkraft Peru, highlighted her greatest professional achievement, stating: “This was winning 2nd place in the internal innovation contest that we had in the company, as team leader I had the initiative to propose a solution based on Deep Learning for image classification and based on this, with a group of engineers who were part of the team, the proposal was adapted to the main needs in terms of infrastructure monitoring and inspection”
