Last Thursday, November 16, the Chapel of the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona in the city of Barcelona hosted the awards ceremony of the ninth edition of the DonaTIC Awards promoted by the Secretaria de Polítiques Digitals de la Generalitat de Catalunya. The competition recognized the transformative work, professional career and future projection of a dozen women technologists, counting the award winners and special mentions. So, after 9 editions and 707 nominations, the DonaTIC Awards are consolidated as a reference award in the recognition of the fundamental role of women in the technological fields, as well as in the visibility of new contemporary female references in Catalonia.
From the Xarxa Punt TIC, we wanted to know first hand how it was to win the DonaTIC Award by interviewing two of the awarded women: Mireia Colina Fatjó, in the Professional category, and Alba Badia Rifà, in the DonaTIC Revelation category. "To be honest, I would never have expected to win this award. For me, it's an honor and more considering the great female talent that exists in Catalonia", explains Badia. "It was a mixture of emotion and disbelief. Impostor syndrome exists and is real, including with people who have been in the tech industry for twenty years. It is necessary to make visible that this insecurity is something that women have intrinsically. However, it was a reward for myself, a recognition of myself and all that I have achieved thanks to fighting and pushing forward", says Colina. "To a little girl or a girl, I would tell her not to be afraid, that if she has a dream no matter how big it seems or how far away it is, go there, fight and work", confesses Badia. "Engineering makes it possible to change the world and above all it makes it possible to build a better one. Humanizing engineering would allow women to take an interest in it", concludes Colina.