Interview with Raffaella Geometrante on the role of women in STEM in Italy
by Amina Sofia El-Maghraby, Italian Correspondent
Raffaella Geometrante is an engineer and the General Manager of Kyma Srl, a company based in Trieste, Italy, that was born as a spin-off of Elettra – Sincrotrone Trieste, to work on the creation of a new generation of FERMI (acronym for Free Electron laser Radiation for Multidisciplinary Investigations). It is a recognized industrial company, fully focused on the design, manufacturing and commissioning of Permanent Magnet devices.
In July 2020, Raffaella was part of the The EuroScience Open Forum (ESOF2020), a biennial, pan-European, general science conference dedicated to scientific research and innovation. Each conference aims to deliver stimulating content and lively debate around the latest advancements and discoveries in the sciences, humanities and social sciences.
ESOF2020 was organized in collaboration with various associations, including Women&Technologies, to which Raffaella belongs, founded by Gianna Martinengo, with the aim of valuing female talent in technology, innovation and scientific research, promoting projects and actions aimed at combating stereotypes and gender discrimination, contributing to the orientation of young people to the jobs of the future and towards sustainable business models.
When she was 19 years old, Raffaella chooses to enroll in the mechanical engineering faculty. Initially she was a bit perplexed, wondering if it was a suitable subject for her, as a woman, but then pushing herself without further ado, she followed what she was good at and loved it.
“I realised that it is not the fact of being a man or a woman, it is a matter of what you are passionate about, what you really like, what you would like to do as soon as you wake up in the morning and dedicating hours of your life, with a lot of efforts and satisfaction. This is the question you should ask to yourself. So, when I realised that this was exactly what I was passionate about, I decided that it was a good choice for me.
People often talk about talent and I would like to underline what means for me: talent is exactly the passion you have, the willingness to really spend hours, days and years on a subject, getting into that topic. It is in that moment you gain what people see as a talent, which comes from many efforts. Therefore, you need to be ready to do it and possibly with great satisfaction and with a very positive attitude.”
In fact, Raffaella demonstrates a great talent and competence in her field, so much to win a scholarship for a MA in Materials Research Laboratory at the Pennsylvania State University, in the United States. She came back to Italy and completed a PhD in Materials Science and Technology, in the same moment she became mother for the first time. After teaching and researching at the University of Trieste, Raffaella had an interview that would have changed her life, giving her the possibility to work on a rather new and different project, related to the FERMI’s laser, joining a team of engineers and physics, becoming Kyma’s Project Manager in 2012 and four years after, General Manager.
It is a fact that the gender gap still exists in STEM, “you can see it everywhere, you can see the statistics, you can see the numbers, but we have also to understand that it’s something we are focusing on just recently”, commented Raffaella. “So, we need some time to work on that, to change all the barriers that we have, barriers coming from thousand years of history. I think that the reason why the gender gap still exists,it is because of the fact that we started to change our approach to it, or even talking about it, only in the recent years.
From my point of you, is not a question of being equal, it’s a question of being smart. Because if you just consider half of the population holding some top managerial or decision-making position, you are wasting the other half. I really believe it is important to have a wide range of people, to be chosen because of their talent and passion. I also believe there are a lot of improvements that we can do at a system level. For example, there are many women born in the 50s and 60s who went through serious difficulties in this field as much as I did, and somehow, were able to manage that and achieve results.
So, one of the things we could do is to give feedback to the younger generation getting into the STEM field and give them some instructions or some advice or just share our stories for them to understand what we can do better and how some problems can be avoided. There are amazing associations like “Women&Technologies”, women like Gianna Martinengo and Maria Rita Fiasco who are constantly working on that, by gathering together amazing, skilled, educated women and creating virtuous movements of women, willing to contribute on building a better future where women and men can perfectly work together, aware of the fact that each one is bringing something into the project and can leave a positive sign.
As a general statement, I would say that this is a very important position taken by people, associations, and women who are trying to find out a way to make the life of young generations better.
Then, there is another critical point, which is the maternity. When women in their 20-30 years old, who have talent and skills, decide to have a family, they should not be put in front of a choice, between work, career and family. As a system we should support them, share what we learnt from our own experiences and find solutions together”.
Raffaella perfectly embodies the possibility that being a female engineer alongside being a mother is feasible, adapting your own attitude, following what we are passionate about without depriving ourselves of anything.
“I was lucky at that time as I had a University career, that allowed me to have two babies, managing my time so that I could manage work and family together. Having kids and working is not easy, if you choose one of the two it has to be because you enjoy or prefer one of them. In the moment you decide to choose both, you should be able to keep a foot in your career, as well. In my case I had a contract with an American University which helped immediately thanks to the smart working tool. On the other side, I have to say that the system in Italy is not very easy, in the sense that a part-time job is not appreciated and paid that much, however what we can learn from this COVID situation, looking at a positive aspect, is that the smart working could be applied in the future by the system to help mothers to keep going with their family and their career.”
Raffaella has a very positive view of women in STEM fields, in fact she offers us some data related to the Nobel Prizes awarded to women, since 1901, 58 women have received one, and the numbers are growing. 2020 has brought three more names on the list of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry and Physics, Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer A. Doudna and Andrea Ghez. She expresses her trust in these women who in the recent years have been nominated and have also been winners, as they are the ones who can inspire the new generations, leading us towards a better future. A future in which gender inequality is no longer the problem to focus on, since the only thing we should be working towards is achieving a unique project together, bringing new ideas for science and technology.
There is a lot we can do as individuals, and the first thing I say to any woman is to sit at the table, raise your hand and speak up”, concluded Raffaella, sharing an advice for all our readers. “Knowing and being aware that your ideas deserve to be listened and to be shared. It happened to me in the past, that I was intimidated by what was around me, but what I have learnt at the end of the story is that I could really say something that was at the same level of my colleagues, a great contribution. As the ACDC said “it is a long way to the top if you wanna rock and roll”. We have to consider that life is not easy for anybody, women or men, but it’s easier if we work together. We need to share our positive attitude and think about what we can do about that, what is the thing we can do to leave a sign here”.
This interview is also available in podcast, you can listen and download it here.
