Last June 23 we celebrated the International Day of Women in Engineering, which aims to raise awareness about the importance and contribution of women in this professional world. For this reason, the Cadiz newspaper La Voz Digital has kindly spoken with our colleague María José Marente, chemical engineer and head of Sustainability and Business Optimization of our group, an article that we share in our blog:
“I’ve always been a ‘geek’ of science'”.
María José Marente is one of the many female engineers in the province of Cádiz, who with effort and hard work have managed to make a niche for themselves professionally. She studied Chemical Engineering and later a Master in Nanoscience and Materials Technologies, both at the University of Cadiz.
She currently works in the R&D department of the company Mecanizados y Montajes Aeronáuticos, located in the Las Salinas de Levante Industrial Park.
“I’ve always been a science and technology geek and I knew where I wanted to project my future,” she says. “In this case, I also decided to specialize in chemistry because I wanted to learn more about chemical processes”.
In María José’s words, “an engineer contributes a lot to society, since he or she is in charge of creating solutions to the problems that today’s society demands” and “for me, at the beginning it was a challenge, but at the same time it was satisfying”.
“The degree met my expectations, but I must also say that I learned the most in real life by working in a company,” he says, adding that “perhaps with the work experience I have now, I would emphasize some subjects that are important in the degree program or expand with some subjects that the university does not offer”.
He affirms that in his degree the percentage of both sexes was “very similar”, although “there are other engineering degrees in which the male sex is 90% of the course”.
“When it comes to finding a job, I think that little by little companies are becoming aware of this, but there is still a long way to go”, since “there are many sectors where the percentage of women is low and in high positions, even more so”.
Finally, she would recommend studying engineering because “you understand the world in a more analytical and complex way, the field of engineering is characterized by teamwork, so you learn a lot by working with colleagues, from them and with them”.
In addition, “it allows you to change the world, in this case the area of R&D allows you to create or improve existing products, services or procedures” and “it offers very diverse career options, in the end you end up working as an engineer and your last name is your specialty, so it allows you to open up your career field”.
