Women are under-represented in the tech sector. Not only that, but they’re underpaid, often passed for promotions and faced with everyday sexism. It’s no wonder women are more likely to leave the industry within a year compared to their male counterparts. But there’s hope. Last week, the MIT Technology Review published a list of the leading Latin American innovators of 2019, and we wanted to highlight the women, who have pushed through in a male-dominated industry and are creating solutions for issues like climate change, terminal illnesses, and other threats. 

In a field that requires women to work alongside men who don’t believe women have the intelligence and inclination to work in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), these Latina innovators are proving otherwise.

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Technology is failing young people; it is also providing them with new opportunities. We examine its perils and promises in the youth issue, out now. Click the link in our bio to see the full magazine, and to learn how tech is changing the way the next generation lives, learns, and understands themselves. Cover photo by @_tonyluong #kidsandtechnology #kidsandtech #generationz #genz #generationalpha #teensandtech #teensandtechnology #technology #technologynews #technews #techreview #technoloygreview #mittechnologyreview

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Renee Wittemyer, director of program strategy and investment at Pivotal Ventures —Melinda Gates’ investment and incubation company— says that women, and particularly women of color, “are being systemically left behind.” And, she adds, “these stats are moving at a glacial pace.” According to Wittemeyer, African American women and Hispanic women represent 3% and 1% of tech workers respectively.

There is an extensive underrepresentation of women in STEM fields. 

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In the foreword to her novel “Sula,” Toni Morrison wrote: ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ “Outlaw women are fascinating—not always for their behavior, but because historically women are seen as naturally disruptive and their status is an illegal one from birth if it is not under the rule of men.” ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀ What does this quote mean to you?

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Women make up only 24 percent of the STEM workforce. To make matters worse, only 3 percent of Latina women are working in STEM fields. So these Latina innovators are worth celebrating. 

These scientists, biologists and engineers are making a social impact by solving many of the world’s most complex questions and threatening issues—from climate change to terminal illnesses to social problems.

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#Innovadores35Latam | ¡Ya están aquí los Innovadores menores de 35 Latinoamérica 2019! . Sus 35 proyectos con novedosos enfoques para crear nuevos tratamientos, robots colaborativos y formas de energía podrían estar a punto de cambiar el mundo . #tecnologia #innovatosunder35 #technews #instatech #technology #Innovators35Latam

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Here are five Latina innovators shaking up the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) sphere and using technology to create a greater impact for the world:

Lucía Gallardo

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Lucía Gallardo is the brain behind “Emerge,” a start-up that aims to solve social problems with emerging technologies, such as blockchain, Internet of things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI). “Through her company, Gallardo tries to bring these tools to people who work on social impact projects, especially in impoverished countries such as her native Honduras. One of Emerge’s main sources of support is women and marginalized communities, who are driven by both technology and advice,” MIT Technology Review writes.

María Alexandra Tamayo

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This Colombian innovator, is purifying water in a country that has the second-most water resources but where only 8% of households have access to drinking water. This way, the biomedical engineer hopes to avoid diseases and death caused by water.

“This is how NanoPro was born, a device ‘capable of eliminating fungi, viruses and bacteria from water without affecting its taste, smell and color,’ the engineer explains. “The filter can be applied in both rural and urban populations, since it is incorporated both in faucets and in thermoses for those areas whose supply network does not reach homes.” With her invention, Tamayo hopes to democratize the access to drinkable water.

Marcela Torres

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Marcela Torres wants to help refugees and immigrants in Mexico through “Holacode,” a software she developed to provide immigrants with access to employment and better integrate themselves into society. “Marcela Torres realized that in Mexico there were not enough people with the qualifications needed for the software developer positions that were open in the country, so she decided to use technology to solve the problem,” the MIT magazine wrote. “This is how ‘Holacode’ was born, a start-up that offers software development courses for the migrant community in Mexico.” Holacode offers coding and software courses for migrants in Mexico. The courses lasts five months, and with this start-up, Torres hopes that technology education can become more democratic and accessible. “The start-up allows these jobs to be filled by especially vulnerable people such as migrants.”

María Isabel Amorín

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Amorín, 28-year-old Guatemalan chemist discovered an innovative way to clean sewage. On top of emissions and the excessive rate at which we are consuming resources, another great impact that global industrial activities have on the planet, is water pollution. In short, textile industries use a lot of chemical dyes for the production of clothing, which not only results in massive water waste but these chemicals can pollute rivers and other bodies of water. 

The Guatemalan chemist, Maria Isabel Amorin, “synthesized a polymer from shrimp shells that’s capable of retaining the dyes used in the textile industry.” According to the MIT Technology Review, “The filter works by recirculating and retaining the dye used to dye clothes. This project is particularly focused on artisanal textile production, since the technologies available to treat the waters are very expensive. Now, the young chemist is in the process of patenting her ecological method of filtration and hopes to scale production.”

Mariel Pérez Carrillo

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This Mexican biochemical engineer and entrepreneur, helps farmers increase their crop production through Innus Technologies. Carillo recalled, “I went to the countryside to learn from the farmers and I realized that they don’t know how their crop is. They also don’t know what state their soil is in.” She invented Enviro, a device that identifies soil conditions and climate in real time and, from them, offers recommendations to improve crop yields.

Thanks to its sensors, Enviro can measure temperature, humidity, conductivity, pH and salinity. The device can help farmers reduce crop losses. Pérez affirms that Enviro also reduces the need of agricultural supplies, “which reduces the contamination of soil and aquifers caused by to excessive use of agricultural chemicals.” 

It’s finally here. The trailer for Disney+’s upcoming series “Diary of a Future President,” and it’s so much better than we expected. The time period is right pinche now and a Latina is President of the United States. She discovers her 6th-grade diary and we travel back in time to meet her tween self navigating the awkwardness of puberty, running into your school teacher at Victoria’s Secret, and trying to play it cool in front of your crush. It’s exactly the kind of endearing, relatable female empowerment children’s series we all wanted to watch as niñas, and with actresses like Gina Rodriguez of “Jane the Virgin,” Selenis Leyva of “Orange Is the New Black,” and break-out child actress Tess Romero, we can expect the perfect, human execution of an alternate reality that may just catalyze a young Latina to grow up to become President of the United States by the show’s very existence. 

We have Gina Rodriguez to thank for this empowering message to young Latina girls around the country. Rodriguez is the director, producer, and star of “Diary of a Future President,” which is slated to begin streaming on Disney+ on Jan. 17, 2020.

The trailer begins with President Elena Cañero-Reed being handed an old book that begged the question, “Madame President, what is in there?”

“It’s my old diary. I started writing it in the 6th grade. It’s a day by day account of how I got here. I really had a lot to say,” Rodriguez’s character tells her potential Vice President (her role has not been revealed yet). The series arc is set up to take viewers back in time to when the future POTUS was just a regular old tween starting out middle school, arguably a far more stressful time than any amount of time in the White House. We love that Disney+ seeks to humanize a Latina in power by showing young kids what’s possible. That a Latina President was once a pre-teen, crushing on boys or girls, having strong friendships, and also doing well in school. We are here for this message of hope and empowerment, which may just be the very seed that America’s future Latina president needs to have planted during these formative years. 

It’s basically “si se puede” but Disney+.

Meet Tess Romero, the actress who plays young Elena. 

Tess Romero is just 12-years-old and has already landed her first starring role in “Diary of a Future President.” In real life, Romero has attended her fair share of protests. When she was just 9-years-old, she made her own “Fight Like a Girl” protest sign and marched in the record-breaking Women’s March in 2016. 

Elena, Romero’s 12-year-old fictional counterpart, is a Cuban-American girl living with her brother, Bobby, played by Charlie Bushnell, and mother Gabby, played by Selenis Leyva.

Elena’s mother, Gabby, is both a lawyer and Elena’s role model.

We’ll get to watch Elena start middle school with her childhood best friend, Sasha, and eventually watch her catch her mom kissing another man in her living room. “I was just trying to stay afloat in these tumultuous middle school waters,” Elena tells the viewers in a voiceover. “Things are changing. Changes might surprise you. Change becomes the new normal,” she tells us as she takes offense at her mom’s new boyfriend making eggs for the family. Elena is afraid that he’ll take over the “contributions” she makes to the family. “Nobody could ever replace you,” her mother imploringly tells her.

The future President of the United States is just like the rest of us.

She enters the pleasures of Latinidad and starts to grow a lady mustache.

“You’ve got toothpaste on your mustache,” Elena’s brother tells her to her absolute horror. Remember that very first mustache hair you plucked, ladies? The pain, so fresh and new and unfathomable to believe you have to deal with it for the rest of your life. Unless you choose not to.

Elena runs into her middle school teacher at Victoria’s Secret, because haven’t we all.

The horrors of seeing your teacher outside of school is already a shock to the system, let alone while wearing a DD bra outside your clothes. Welcome to life, Elena. We can’t wait to meet you.

You can watch the full trailer below!

READ: Gina Rodriguez Is Producing ‘Diary Of A Future President,’ A TV Show That Will Show Us A Cuban-American Girl As President And It’s Everything We Need RN