{"id":240757,"date":"2025-03-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/sin-categoria\/breaking-barriers-in-transport-economics-claras-journey-in-engineering\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:20:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T11:20:39","slug":"breaking-barriers-in-transport-economics-claras-journey-in-engineering","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/breaking-barriers-in-transport-economics-claras-journey-in-engineering\/","title":{"rendered":"Breaking Barriers in Transport Economics: Clara\u2019s Journey in Engineering"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"\"\"<\/p>\n

For this year\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day on 8 March, we\u2019re talking to Clara Soler Ba\u00f1uelos<\/a><\/strong>, a Researcher at CIMNE\u2019s Innovation Unit in Transport (CENIT<\/a>) – and PhD fellow at The Metropolitan Transport Authority of the Barcelona Area (ATM<\/a>).<\/p>\n

From Civil Engineering to Transport Economics<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Clara Soler\u2019s journey into transport research began like many others in civil engineering\u2014driven by a desire to build things<\/strong>. However, as she explored different aspects of the field, she found herself drawn toward public transport.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike everybody else, you get into civil engineering because you want to build bridges, roads and tunnels,\u201d Clara explains. \u201cBut then, as you move on through the subjects, you realize you don\u2019t want to focus your whole career on bridges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Living in Barcelona, a city known for its extensive public transportation network, further reinforced her interest in the field. Now a PhD candidate and researcher in transport economics, Clara is working on a sustainable and resilient financing model for public transport<\/strong> with the Autoritat del Transport Metropolit\u00e0 de Barcelona<\/a><\/em>. Her research is focused on ensuring long-term funding, assessing new revenue sources, and making transportation systems financially resilient<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\u201cPublic transportation is underfunded,\u201d she says. \u201cA big chunk of it is subsidized by the government, but we need more rolling stock, more infrastructure, and upgrades. My PhD aims to create a financial model to ensure we have the necessary funds until 2040<\/strong>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Challenges as a Woman in Engineering<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Although engineering as a whole has made strides in gender diversity, Clara acknowledges that transportation and civil engineering remain male-dominated.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cFrom the transportation, civil engineering, and industrial engineering standpoint, it\u2019s mostly men,\u201d she notes. \u201cBut from the financing standpoint, it\u2019s mostly women.\u201d<\/p>\n

During her time working in construction project management, she rarely saw women in managerial roles. \u201cWhen I was working in construction, there were maybe a few women in legal or finance, but not in engineering leadership positions,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n

While Clara wasn\u2019t discouraged from pursuing engineering, she also wasn\u2019t actively encouraged<\/strong>. Unlike previous generations where women were often steered toward traditionally female-dominated careers, Clara experienced a more neutral approach in school. \u201cNobody ever told me, \u2018No, you can\u2019t do this,\u2019 but they also didn\u2019t push me toward it either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Inspiring the Next Generation of Women Engineers<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Now, Clara is actively working to change that by supporting young girls interested in STEM careers<\/strong>. She has participated in initiatives like \u00ab100t\u00edfiques<\/a><\/strong>,\u00bb which brings female scientists and engineers to schools in Catalonia to talk to students about their careers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI spoke to kids aged 8 to 10, and they asked genuine questions like, \u2018Did your friends support you?\u2019 and \u2018Did you lose friends because of your career?\u2019\u201d Clara says. \u201cI focused my speech on telling them: \u2018Do not let anybody tell you that this is either too hard or too manly.<\/strong>\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Clara believes that seeing women in engineering roles makes a real difference<\/strong>. \u201cIf just one girl who was hesitant listens to me and realizes she can do it, then it\u2019s worth it,\u201d she says. \u201cThey didn\u2019t have these programs when I was young, but now they are actively encouraging girls to go into science.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her hope is that future generations will find it easier to pursue careers in engineering, especially as more women enter the field and serve as role models. \u201cWhen you see other women who have done it before you, it makes it easier to imagine yourself doing it too\u201d, <\/strong>she concludes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For this year\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day on 8 March, we\u2019re talking to Clara Soler Ba\u00f1uelos, a Researcher at CIMNE\u2019s Innovation Unit in Transport (CENIT) – and PhD fellow at The Metropolitan Transport Authority of the Barcelona Area (ATM). From Civil Engineering to Transport Economics Clara Soler\u2019s journey into transport research began like many others in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":244929,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","slim_seo":{"title":"Breaking Barriers in Transport Economics: Clara\u2019s Journey in Engineering - CIMNE","description":"For this year\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day on 8 March, we\u2019re talking to Clara Soler Ba\u00f1uelos , a Researcher at CIMNE\u2019s Innovation Unit in Transport ( CENIT ) - a"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[284,294,289,138,283],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cenit","category-cimne-women","category-community","category-in-depth","category-innovation-units"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimne.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}