​​​​​​INATEL​

Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Brazil, 2012, April 26​
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On April 26, 2012 INATEL celebrated the "Girls in ICT Day" in Santa Rita do Sapucaí, Brazil, and organized an event about the participation of women in the ICTs market. An ex-student of the Institute and director general of Brazil Spinner, Lanari Pollyanna, gave a lecture. Then there was a debate with the participation of management consultant in Human Resources Development for the Americas of the ITU, Melba Riveira, the project manager of Hitachi Linear, Vanessa Souza, specialist and Senior System at Inatel, Valeska Marcondes.

In an interview with Inatel, Pollyanna Lanari, now 39, remembered when she joined the Institute in 1989. "There were only eight women in a room with one hundred students. Six of them completed the course." Pollyanna, mother of two teenagers, had to overcome barriers as a woman, but stood out and won leadership positions in multinational companies. "I saw many times an air of disbelief when I went into a technical meeting and also the look of surprise when I could discuss as equals."

Today the number of students in Inatel represents 21% of all graduate students in the Institute. Statistically representative, after all, 351 women are currently taking courses related to engineering and technology, 67% of former students in 47-year history. According to the National Institute of Educational Studies Teixeira - INEP, the Ministry of Education, the number of students enrolled in engineering courses in Brazil jumped from 38,200 in 2001 to 118,900 in 2010, an increase of 210%, well above the growth of men enrolled in the same period (140%).