Today is the International Day Of Women And Girls In Science, so here at Science Connected we are focusing our attention on the hard work of women in the sciences and the sociocultural obstacles they continue to face.
Women have led ground-breaking research into public health, vaccines, treatments and innovative technology. They have served on the front lines of COVID-19 response as scientists, health care workers and more. They have done all of this despite the ways in which gender stereotypes, mysogyny, and the persistent gender gap in science and technology has held women back.
According to UNESCO’s forthcoming Science Report, “Only 33 percent of researchers are women, despite the fact that they represent 45 and 55 percent of students at the Bachelor’s and Master’s levels of study respectively, and 44 percent of those enrolled in PhD programs. While 70 per cent of health and social care workers are women, they are paid 11 percent less than their male counterparts.”
In Data Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI), women hold less than 17% of all available tech jobs despite representing 40% of the workforce in the UK, according to the same report.
According to UN Women, “It’s more important than ever to recognize women’s contributions in science, smash stereotypes and defeat discrimination against women and girls in science.” UN Women is the United Nations entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women. A global champion for women and girls, UN Women was established to accelerate progress on meeting their needs worldwide.
References
From insights to action: Gender equality in the wake of COVID-19: Digital library: Publications. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2020/09/gender-equality-in-the-wake-of-covid-19
Women in data science and AI. (2020, August 10). Retrieved from https://www.turing.ac.uk/research/research-projects/women-data-science-and-ai#:~:text=The explosive growth in data, of all available tech jobs
