Researcher Graziela Maciel Barroso is the subject of an award-winning article on science and technology in promoting gender equality

Renowned researcher Graziela Maciel Barroso, the first woman to apply to the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden in the 1940s, was the subject of the article that won the Elisa Frota Award in the Human Sciences category. "Promoting gender equality in botany: a look at the contributions of professor and researcher Graziela Maciel Barroso" was written by doctoral student Júlia Fialho Soares, from the Postgraduate Program in Education at the Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio).

The award-winning production is the result of Júlia Fialho Soares' doctoral research, which began in March 2022, as a scholarship holder of the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (Capes), which aims to investigate the trajectory of Graziela Maciel Barroso, one of the first women to stand out in the scientific world in Brazil. Established as a naturalist in 1946 at the JBRJ, Graziela is the author of "Sistemática de angiospermas do Brasil", an international reference on the subject. Among other awards, the researcher received the Botany of the Millennium Medal (1999).

The winner of the award highlights Professor Graziela's importance to Brazilian science.

- She worked in botany for around 60 years, mainly as a civil servant at the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, and contributed greatly to the training of female botanists and male botanists who have worked and are still working in different parts of Brazil. In addition, she was one of the first female scientists in this field in the country, inspiring others to choose this profession - says Júlia Fialho Soares.

Also according to the doctoral student, the existence of the Graziela Maciel Barroso archive, deposited in the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden, endorses her importance.

 - The archive contains her personal and professional documents, which are a privileged source for my research. In my article, I try to demonstrate, through elements of her trajectory and the contexts in which she was inserted, that it is precisely when women and other formerly excluded subjects access these spaces and opportunities that gender equality is promoted, so that their stories of struggle intersect in the past, present and future - she points out.

With regard to the award, Júlia says that it represents an important incentive not only for the dissemination of research on this subject, but also for valuing the work of women researchers.

- Works like this need to be disseminated, as they bring to mind the stories of women from the past who undertook collective or individual struggles to access certain spaces and opportunities, such as higher education, professional careers, especially academic-scientific ones, and their own emancipation. At the Center for Studies and Research in the History of Brazilian Education (NEPHEB/UNIRIO), of which my advisor, Professor Dr. Nailda Marinho da Costa, is the coordinator, and of which I am a member, the stories of other women have also been researched - she concludes.

 Elisa Frota Pessoa Award

Awarded by the Museum of Tomorrow, in partnership with the Rio de Janeiro Municipal Department of Science and Technology, the prize pays tribute to the pioneering spirit of Elisa Frota Pessoa, an experimental physicist who played a significant role in the field of science and technology in the city of Rio de Janeiro.

The best scientific articles by area of knowledge were selected, produced by undergraduate, master's and doctoral students from higher education institutions based in the city of Rio de Janeiro, with the theme "Science and technology in the promotion of gender equality". The aim was to reward the best academic articles on the impact of women in science and technology or the role and experiences of science and technology in combating gender inequality.

The awards ceremony will take place this Thursday (14/12) at 5:30pm in the auditorium of the Museum of Tomorrow in downtown Rio.