Women in the nuclear field promoting Latin American integration

Abstract

Nuclear energy is used for the generation of electricity, but also for the production of radioisotopes, desalination of sea water and also for the production of hydrogen. Activities in the nuclear field are in the area of science, technology and innovation that has long belonged to an essentially male domain, in which the contributions of women were neglected or underestimated. The central idea for the creation of Women in Nuclear, WiN Global, was to support and encourage women working in nuclear science and technology and encourage the promotion of understanding and knowledge of the benefits of the peaceful use of nuclear energy by the public. WiN Global currently has predominantly female members coming from 129 different countries, belonging to chapters or individually. Today, WiN Global is integrated by 53 WiN Global chapters. Forty-nine countries have their own chapters and there are also regional and international ones. The history of Latin American integration started during the political independence movement of the countries of the New Continent. Since then, up and downs were overcome in order to keep a regional ambiance of good relationship. In the present study, a new form of integration is presented by the efforts of the women working in the nuclear ambit. This important movement involves Latin American WiN chapters (such as WiN Argentina, WiN Brazil, WiN ARCAL) promoting activities for the integration of our region. In order to quantify, to some extent, the participation of Latin American women, this paper presents a survey crossing data of the number of related publications to help to address an objective analysis of the trend of this integration.