The 9th International Day of Women and Girls in Science

Women in Science Leadership: A New Era for Sustainability

The focus of this years International Day of Women and Girls in Science is tackling some of the greatest challenges of the Agenda for Sustainable Development - from improving health to combating climate change - will rely on harnessing all talent. That means getting more women working in these fields. Diversity in research expands the pool of talented researchers, bringing in fresh perspectives, talent and creativity. This Day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened.

Although Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields are widely regarded as critical to national economies, so far most countries, no matter their level of development, have not achieved gender equality in STEM.

Some of the issues this day looks to raise awareness of:

• Women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and, while they represent 33.3% of all researchers, only 12% of members of national science academies are women.

• In cutting edge fields such as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman.

• Despite a shortage of skills in most of the technological fields driving the Fourth Industrial Revolution, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics.

• Female researchers tend to have shorter, less well-paid careers. Their work is underrepresented in high-profile journals and they are often passed over for promotion.

A significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields.

We strive to enage as many girls as we can in our STEM Workshops, and we geniunely hope that our work goes on to inspire the next generation of critical thinkers.

If you would like to get involved in the many activites and conversations around Internation Women in Science day, visit https://www.womeninscienceday.org/