Dates: from 17th September 2014 to 9th January 2015 (Monday-Friday, 9 am - 8 pm). Place: Palau de Cerveró, «José Puche» room and «Manuela Solís» room. Organised by: Vicerectorat de Cultura i Igualtat (Universitat de València) and López Piñero Institute for the History of Medicine and Science (UV-CSIC), in collaboration with EASD-València. Curators: Natalia Torres and Mª Carmen San Julián
This exhibition aims to show the contribution of women to the scientific and technology progress world, areas in which they have gone unnoticed, invisible, they and their researches, discoveries, inventions and even, patents. A sector where women have been displaced due to various factors that share a common core; the traditional androcentric construction of science, the patriarchal social order and, as result of all this; gender-based discrimination.
Despite the obstacles, the presence and contribution of women in these areas has been qualitatively and quantitatively very important. So important that it is exceptional the reference to them in books. It is sadly usual and inexplicable, their absolute absence in text books, with which students (of all educational levels, from primary school to University) get a totally biased idea about Science and Technology, as they were prevented from learning about the contributions of a great part of the scientific community.
In Spain, during the early 20th century, for example, the women live for their homes: their life was devoted entirely to the care of the family and to the household chores. They also haven’t voting rights. They were forbidden to access to university studies (Society and reality prevent them from education, even primary education). Their access to the job market under the same conditions as men was a pipe dream.
Women have come a long and hard way for defending their rights (in Law and in the reality). Equality of women and men today may seem something obvious but by no means it is consolidated. There is still no effective equality. Inequality still continues, in the subconscious and, sometimes, in the social conscious, because there are many stereotypes that mark us from childhood and that draw a line too thick between the treatment and opportunities of women and men.
This exhibition aims to provide to the public elements for getting rid of this “blindfold” on their eyes and to reveal that women, throughout history have gone much further of what we have been told, and even in those times when everything was adverse. We will discover some women ahead of their time, who have meant a milestone in the science and technology field, like for example, Pilar Mateo with her insecticide paint, the researcher Rita Levi-Montalcini or the first astronaut woman Valentina Tereshkova. Women who have set an example for opening the society mind.
The exhibition is structured in different stages that come from closed and narrow spaces towards others more open and released, going around past obstacles, as many women did throughout history, while the presence of women in Sciences and Technology is discovered didactically.
