“In the beginning, the men would often turn to look when they heard my voice, a female voice. They weren’t used to it. But they ended up accepting us as equals. We would always have our meals together, sitting on the floor, dirty, drenched in sweat, with the rats running around us. We are all equal, underground,” says Hata.

According to the latest PISA report, only one in 20 girls considers working in a scientific or technological field in the future, compared with one in five boys. It is not because they do not like science or because they do not do as well at it, not by any means. The problem, as Álvarez Caro insists, is that they are not given a chance to try it.