PANAPRESS
Panafrican News Agency
Guterres highlights 'vital' need for more women, girls in sciences
New York, US (PANA) - UN Secretary-General António Guterres has described the participation of women and girls in science as “vital” to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
In a video to mark the 2019 International Day of Women in Science, on 11 February, he said this is because “the world cannot afford to miss out on the contributions of half our population”.
But women and girls continue to be extremely under-represented in the sciences, a UN statement on Thursday has noted.
To help improve this situation, UN Women is working with the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, to call on the private sector to make a commitment to gender equality by signing up to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, arguing that gender diversity helps business to perform better.
In a joint UN Women/UNESCO statement, the two UN agencies outlined ways that they are tackling the under-representation of women in science, through initiatives such as the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Programme, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, and the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and Gender Advancement project.
The statement said whilst there is still much to be done, major progress has been made in the past decade towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools, particularly for women and girls.
When it comes to the part they have to play in the sciences, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Australian Government's Women in STEM Ambassador and Professor of Practice in Science Communication, said: “Science and technology and mathematics are for you because you need to change the world. Women need to take their place at the top table of science, we need to use it for good to change the world for the better, and you can do it.”
Many of the world’s biggest problems may be going unsolved because too many women and girls are being discouraged from the sciences, the UN said.
The role of science education in a changing world cannot be undervalued: it is estimated that fully 90 per cent of future jobs will require some form of ICT (information and communication technology) skills, and the fastest growing job categories are related to STEM, with recent studies indicating 58 million net new jobs, in areas such as data analysis, software development and data visualization.
But women and girls continue to be extremely under-represented in the sciences. Data from UNESCO (the UN’s agency for education, science and culture) shows that less than a third of all female students choose STEM-related subjects in higher education, whilst just three per cent of women choose ICT subjects.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important field, where the diversity of those working on AI solutions has been identified as a crucial element in ensuring that they are free from bias. However, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report shows that only 22 per cent of artificial intelligence professionals globally are female.
There are several reasons for the gender gap in the sciences, from the prioritization of boys’ education, to gender biases and stereotypes, and the global digital divide, which disproportionately affects women and girls.
The extent to which the world is missing out on potential female scientific talent becomes all the more apparent if we look at some of the extraordinary contribution that women have made to advancing science, contributions that were often overlooked during their working lives, such as Marie Curie, computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, NASA scientist Katherine Johnson, and countless others more whose work continues to be overlooked.
-0- PANA MA 8Feb2019
In a video to mark the 2019 International Day of Women in Science, on 11 February, he said this is because “the world cannot afford to miss out on the contributions of half our population”.
But women and girls continue to be extremely under-represented in the sciences, a UN statement on Thursday has noted.
To help improve this situation, UN Women is working with the UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, to call on the private sector to make a commitment to gender equality by signing up to the Women’s Empowerment Principles, arguing that gender diversity helps business to perform better.
In a joint UN Women/UNESCO statement, the two UN agencies outlined ways that they are tackling the under-representation of women in science, through initiatives such as the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Programme, the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World, and the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and Gender Advancement project.
The statement said whilst there is still much to be done, major progress has been made in the past decade towards increasing access to education at all levels and increasing enrolment rates in schools, particularly for women and girls.
When it comes to the part they have to play in the sciences, Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, Australian Government's Women in STEM Ambassador and Professor of Practice in Science Communication, said: “Science and technology and mathematics are for you because you need to change the world. Women need to take their place at the top table of science, we need to use it for good to change the world for the better, and you can do it.”
Many of the world’s biggest problems may be going unsolved because too many women and girls are being discouraged from the sciences, the UN said.
The role of science education in a changing world cannot be undervalued: it is estimated that fully 90 per cent of future jobs will require some form of ICT (information and communication technology) skills, and the fastest growing job categories are related to STEM, with recent studies indicating 58 million net new jobs, in areas such as data analysis, software development and data visualization.
But women and girls continue to be extremely under-represented in the sciences. Data from UNESCO (the UN’s agency for education, science and culture) shows that less than a third of all female students choose STEM-related subjects in higher education, whilst just three per cent of women choose ICT subjects.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming an increasingly important field, where the diversity of those working on AI solutions has been identified as a crucial element in ensuring that they are free from bias. However, the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Report shows that only 22 per cent of artificial intelligence professionals globally are female.
There are several reasons for the gender gap in the sciences, from the prioritization of boys’ education, to gender biases and stereotypes, and the global digital divide, which disproportionately affects women and girls.
The extent to which the world is missing out on potential female scientific talent becomes all the more apparent if we look at some of the extraordinary contribution that women have made to advancing science, contributions that were often overlooked during their working lives, such as Marie Curie, computer pioneer Ada Lovelace, NASA scientist Katherine Johnson, and countless others more whose work continues to be overlooked.
-0- PANA MA 8Feb2019
