The Inter-American Year of Women: LACCEI Recognizing Successes and Challenges in Gender Equity and Equality in Engineering Education in the Americas

Published in: Innovation and Development for the Americas: Engineering, Education, Research and Development: Proceedings of the 8th Latin American and Caribbean Conference for Engineering and Technology
Date of Conference: June 1-4, 2010
Location of Conference: Arequipa, Peru
Authors: Marta Beltrán Martínez
María M. Larrondo Petrie
Refereed Paper: #130

Abstract

The year 2010 was proclaimed ¨The InterAmerican Year of Women¨ (OAS, 2009) by the Organization of American States to especially commemorate the 35 th anniversary of the first United Nations’ World Conference on Women during the International Women’s Year, the 15 th anniversary of the last United Nations’ World Conference on Women celebrated in Beijing in 1995, and the 10 th anniversary of the adoption of the Inter- American Program on the Promotion of Women’s Human Rights and Gender Equity and Equality. The goal of the proclamation is to broadly mobilize throughout the Americas an evaluation of successes and challenges in the defense of women’s human rights and gender equity and equality, and to strengthen public sensitivity to gender issues. To show solidarity with this proclamation, the Latin American and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institution (LACCEI) at their 2010 conference will celebrate the accomplishments of Inter-American women engineers by recognizing distinguished female engineering educators, will identify resources available to recruit and retain women in engineering, and will discuss the challenges faced in the Americas to attain gender equity and equality in this field. This paper provides a summary of the resources, successes and challenges presented in the LACCEI 2010 conference.