(Versión en castellano, Versió en català)
We the women of ConCiencias Barcelona embrace the Feminist strike: a carers’, consumption, educational and workers’ strike called for tomorrow, March 8th.
And we embrace it:
Not only because we female scientists have been systematically ignored in the hegemonical narratives of the history of science, but because we are currently being highlighted under the same patriarchal patterns of productivity, competitiveness and so-called excellence that have been the foundation of academic and scientific institutions from their very origin, through a focus on specific characters and omitting the fact that knowledge production is a collective enterprise. Because the science of men has belittled and continues to belittle the knowledge that has historically been the work of female collectives, and relegates it to the category of technical and auxiliary at the orders of a male superior: matrons, nurses, wise women.
Not only because our education has lacked female role models to reflect upon ourselves, but also because in the past few years the educational system, embedded in the same patriarchal and capitalistic structure, presents the individual successes of «great women» devoid of context, and pressures girls and young women by reinforcing the impostor syndrome and feelings of inadequacy. Because it perpetuates alienation through fictional unachievable standards.
Not only because so-called technical-scientific development is unequally distributed amongst the women of the world, but also because the very idea of development implies structural domination over non-Western communities and the land, by exploiting their resources and destroying the lives of other living beings that we share it with.
Not only because there are glass ceilings, but also because daily institutional practices at all levels remind us constantly of the additional effort that we must undertake to stand our ground: systematic interruptions, mansplaining, patronising comments, and the calling into question or outright denial of cases of abuse and harassment.
Not only because we women have a double working day –at our job and at home–, but also because the patriarchal system expects caring responsibilities to be the lowest priority of anyone who wishes to take an active role in society and their scientific career. Because our mothers, grandmothers and older women are seen as an obstacle to our daily productivity as well-oiled gears of the capitalist system, instead of essential community members.
Not only because we women feel obliged to choose between a professional career and motherhood, but also because we are to conceive childrearing as something that will «delay» our careers as compared to our male collegues. Because the scientific world continues to be masculine, in as much as it is still structured around a linear understanding of life based on maximum productivity, and is separate from care and mutual support networks that nourish us and sustain us as human beings in society.
Not only because as women «we are strong and can do anything», but also so that we don’t have to always do everything.
Because from the ConCiencias Barcelona collective we are struggling for science to become gender-conscious, intersectional, and socially transformative, where women can feel –and be– free to work and to contribute their scientific knowledge to society, free from any obstacle, unrecognition or lack of confidence, by which the patriarchy has silenced us across history and to this day.
