February 11 is International Day of Girls and Women in Science! This initiative by the United Nations has been a decade’s-long effort with gender equality at the forefront of world-wide issues it is facing. According to the UN, Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution not only to economic development of the world, but to progress across all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well. However, 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.

Unfortunate Facts about Females in Science (according to the UN):

  • Women are typically given smaller research grants than their male colleagues and, while they represented 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 women
  • 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

 

International Day of Girls and Women in Science 2023

This year, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science  (IDWGIS) will focus on the role of Women and Girls and Science as relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). In doing so the IDWGIS aims to connect the International Community to Women and Girls in Science, strengthening the ties between science, policy, and society for strategies oriented towards the future. The IDWGIS will thus showcase best practices, strategies, applied solutions in addressing SDGs challenges and opportunities. It will also include for the first time a science workshop for Blind Girls and a session from the BLIND fellow SCIENTISTS on “Science in Braille: Making Science Accessible”. 

Let’s Celebrate Famous Women in Science! 

Getting girls to think about education or a career in science doesn’t have to wait until they are older; there are plenty of resources to get them inspired right now! Remembering famous women with significant scientific contributions to humanity is one of the best ways we can help to ensure that women remain fairly represented in this field. This article from Global Citizen is a great place to start, highlighting 17 famous females with important scientific contributions to history. You will see some familiar names such as Marie Curie and Jane Goodall. There might also be some new women to learn about as well, such as Katherine Freese, a trailblazer in studying dark matter, and Rachel Carson, an environmental scientist who warned about the dangers of chemicals that humans might be exposed to. 

Additionally, you can check out these lists of books and movies about women in STEM fields right here on TryEngineering. Want to show a girl how women are making a difference in science fields relevant today? Then check out this TryEngineering article about some of the most influential women scientists at the frontlines of the pandemic.