VOLUMEN 33, NÚMERO 2 | Número especial | PP. 379-385

ISSN: 2250-6101

Meninas do radium: digital media as

an instrument for gender inclusion in

physics during the covid-19 pandemic

in Brazil

Meninas do radium: as mídias digitais como

instrumento para inclusão de gênero na física

durante a pandemia de covid-19 no Brasil

DEFIS, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465 Km 07 - CEP: 23897-000 – Seropédica, RJ, Brasil.

²PPGEduCIMAT, Universidade Federal Rural do Rio de Janeiro, BR 465 Km 07 - CEP: 23897-000 – Seropédica, RJ, Brasil.

HESFA, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Av. Pres. Vargas, 2863 – CEP: 20210-030 - Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro - CEP: 21941-972 – Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil.

Pré- Vestibular Amar em Ensinar - CEP: 25010-000 – Duque de Caxias, RJ, Brasil.

intersectional perspective, in terms of gender, race, class and anti-ableism. After the start of the covid-19 pandemic, it was necessary

to migrate to virtual spaces, which presented itself as a challenge. The first digital activity was a short course of Nuclear Physics, exclu-

sively for women. We started a channel on YouTube where we present Lives and workshops, almost exclusively taught by women. The

relevance achieved by the project, made possible by the use of digital media, took him from the Rio de Janeiro’s periphery to the rest

of Brazil. In addition to gender inclusion, we observed comments on racial, class and human rights issues. We hope to continue to

inspire students and researchers in the Exact Sciences as well as to enter this debate.

Keywords: Gender questions; Pandemic; Inclusion; Physics; Digital media.

ascensão na carreira e obterem bolsas de pesquisa. O “Meninas do Radium: A Periferia também faz Ciência” é um projeto do departa-

mento de Física da UFRRJ, que desenvolve atividades de pesquisa e extensão, visando a equidade de gênero neste campo em uma

perspectiva interseccional, em termos de gênero, raça, classe e anti-capacitismo. Após o início da pandemia covid-19, foi necessário

migrar para espaços virtuais, o que se apresentou como um desafio. A primeira atividade digital foi um minicurso de Física Nuclear,

exclusivo para mulheres. Começamos um canal no YouTube, onde apresentamos Lives e workshops, quase exclusivamente ministrados

por mulheres. A relevância alcançada pelo projeto, devido às mídias digitais, o levou da periferia do Rio de Janeiro para o resto do

Brasil. Além da inclusão de gênero, observamos discussões sobre questões raciais, de classe e direitos humanos. Esperamos continuar

a inspirar estudantes e pesquisadores nas Ciências Exatas, bem como a entrarem neste debate.

Palavras chaves: Questões de gênero; Pandemia; Inclusão; Física; Mídias digitais.

Since women are characterized as a very heterogeneous group in society, different aspects of the feminist movement

emerge which makes it, mistakenly, be seen by many people as something that is inaccurate or without a defined

direction.

“A Vindication of the Rights of Woman” written by Mary Wollstonecraft and published in 1791, where the author

discusses the downgrading of women, the lack of financial autonomy, the absence of political rights and still hollered

for social justice (Estacheski and Medeiros, 2017). This important work is published under the shadow of the Enlight-

enment movement, which, with its French revolution, only guaranteed rights to white and wealthy men. Among these

and many other reasons, it is considered the starting point of the feminist movement, even though many works only

recognize its beginning by associating it with the first wave.

The first wave started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with women, known as suffragettes (Rosa and Silva,

The feminism struggle received attention again at the beginning of 2010 with the new generation of feminists,

having as main tool the internet, as examples, the hashtags #METOO and #BlackLivesMatter were spread all over the

world. This movement has also reached research laboratories and women are beginning to demand not only their

rights, but also those of their predecessors through the recognition of their contributions to science as in the case of

Lise Meitner.

Currently, a small number of women researchers are able to ascend and acquire a productivity scholarship in Exact

Sciences at the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) in Brazil. If we talk about black

women, the number is even smaller. When it comes to transgender women, there is not even the recognition with in

the academy, so, being invisible, these women suffer from a process of social exclusion that can start from childhood,

even in basic education, often making it impossible to enter higher education, and even finishing high school (Silva

case of the Matilda effect, it concerns the invisibility of women scientists and the attribution of their deeds to men.

The name derives from Matilda Joslyn Gage, given in 1993 by the historian Margaret W. Rossiter (Nahra and Costa,

2020). Such facts demonstrate how women are excluded throughout their professional trajectory within the Univer-

sity, since graduation. After 200 years of the beginning of feminism, the struggle continues today and includes the

search for space in universities, especially with regard to access, permanence and career advancement in the area of

Exact Sciences (Morcelle, Freitas and Ludwig, 2019).

partment of the Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRRJ), located in Seropédica, where not all neighborhoods

in the municipality have paved streets, electricity and running water, at Baixada Fluminense, periphery of the state of

Rio de Janeiro. The project mainly seeks gender equity in the exact sciences, in addition to broach racial issues, human

rights, among other social issues related to minority groups, through research and extension actions in order to relate

to social identities. Having as parameters the goals 5 "Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls" and

from the outskirts of the city of Rio de Janeiro and the Baixada Fluminense, taking the history of science, human rights

and physics as the basis from an intersectional perspective.

When the activities in person were suspended, there had to be an adaptation of the project, which started to

operate remotely. It was the starting point to it actually enter the virtual spaces, adapting all activities to this context

of social isolation. The beginning of the digital activities of Meninas do Radium was an exclusive mini-course for

women entitled “Introduction to Nuclear Physics and Applications”, in June 2020, taught in a virtual learning environ-

ment (VLE). Then, we started a YouTube channel where periodical workshops are almost exclusively taught by women.

So far, there have been twelve lives and four short courses. We promote reading discussion activities about books and

articles on different VLE platforms. We also started to work in other social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and

WhatsApp, having our own channels. In addition to having attended several invitations to events and interviews.

in equations, averages and statistics. (Minayo, 2001, p. 22)

of the entities and on the processes that cannot be examined or measured experimentally in terms of quantity, vol-

ume, intensity or frequency".

black people (55%), indigenous people (2%) and Asian people (0, 3%), the other 0.3% belong to those who declared

to have no ethnicity. In all of these three lectures, only one person had some kind of specific need, low vision. As for

schooling and research areas, 70% of our viewers had their undergraduate degree still in progress, 13% graduated, 8%

with a master's degree, 7% already with doctorates and 5% of high school students. Of all these people, the course

with the largest number is the Degree in Physics (more than 40%), but we can also observe the participation of people

from other areas, such as chemistry (9%), and less expressive numbers of courses such as History, Pedagogy, Tourism,

University of Rio de Janeiro, the other institutions are very dispersed in their representation.

to ask questions or put their perceptions. It is observed how difficult these issues are to be problematized. It is essen-

tial to continue the discussions, fostering the above axes is just a small step towards propagation. Analyzing table II, it

is possible to observe that we have gender (17%) and gender violence (10%) as the most discussed topics, followed by

the tie (7%) of the issues of gender and race and gender and human rights, which were approached in a way that fits

with the discussions of the presentation that debated the situations of women in the Brazilian prison system.

TABLE II. Axis and theme review: "A construção do lugar social das mulheres no Brasil moderno e as contribuições da História".

In an intersectional perspective, without the class, race and gender triad it is impossible to have a feminist struggle

and gender inclusion, so it is necessary to promote these themes, actions to encourage peripheral women and black

women to seek Universities, stimulate interest in the sciences and be able to make them feel represented in this field.

It is important to highlight that black women suffer invisibility, regardless of their position in society. So, talking about

the construction of gender and race equity in the exact sciences is urgent, taking into account that in our group we

have future teachers.

The analysis of table III deals with the lecture “Cientistas: Rebeldes e Insubordinadas” ("Scientists: Rebels and Insub-

ordinates"), shows us that again we had 13 comments from people who managed to collectivize knowledge, asking

questions to the researcher, reflections, with the axis of representativeness of the work of a teacher in the live stream

(23%), was the theme with the greatest exchange between the researcher and the participants, who felt represented,

identified with the speaker who made the explanation about the scientists. Gender (17%) as the third most com-

mented, highlighted in all lectures given, in this way, shows the important place it occupies in the spaces of discussion,

in this axis of analysis, these comments bring speeches of how much the students feel disqualified by their teachers,

reducing their participation in scientific careers, passing through violations that interfere with the emotional field.

Empowerment is actively present with the intersectional issues of gender and race (7%) and class (3%), and raises

discussions about the valorization of the human being, regardless of race, gender or social class.

TABLE III. Axis and theme review: "Cientistas: Rebeldes e Insubordinadas".

In all three lives, something that can be observed very clearly is the appreciation that all people following the

transmission feel and felt for the project “Meninas do Radium”. Throughout the presentations and even with com-

ments about considering the project very important for their life. Another important fact that we can notice is the

growing number of comments pertinent to the discussions of gender, race and class, in addition to the more touches

focused on Human Rights and the understanding of the importance of representativeness in the academic and school

environment, as a whole.

From the specific analysis of each transmission, and with the improved visualization in table IV, we can infer that

where 68% of the comments of these lectures are directed to honor the work that the project was doing at those

the discussions raised in the chats of the lectures, yet we managed to highlight the constructive environment that was

formed during all of our live broadcasts. Which makes us move towards a more inclusive physics, in several aspects.

IV. CONCLUSION

response with what was expected. There was hospitality from the public, especially women, evidenced by the praise

given to the project and the number of Instagram followers that only grows with each new event. In addition, we were

able to provide a space for discussion that encompasses science and gender from an intersectional perspective. The

virtual environment proved to be a powerful tool for the work of Meninas do Radium, the reach achieved would not

be possible only through in person work, although the countless difficulties, even in terms of health and connection,

have harmed the project's members and viewers.

opposing the reality of the exact sciences. This being demonstrated by recent data presented by Morcelle et al (2019),

where this group is one of the most under-represented in STEM. So, we managed not only to reach, but to give voice to

this group and that demonstrates the representativeness of Meninas do Radium and that we are contributing to the fight

against racism.

activities, proposing discussions about gender, racism, class issues, capacity building and plurality, building collectively

was noticeable that the women who participated in the live streams, trust us and feel represented.

AKNOWLEGDEMENTS

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