More women and girls needed in the sciences to solve world’s biggest challenges

Many of the world’s biggest problems may be going unsolved because too many women and girls are being discouraged from the sciences.

The role of science education in a changing world cannot be undervalued: it is estimated that fully 90 percent of future jobs will require some form of ICT skills, and the fastest growing job categories are related to STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), 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 shows that less than a third of all female students choose STEM-related subjects in higher education, whilst just three percent 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 percent 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.

The 2019 International Day of Women in Science, on February 11, is shining a spotlight on this issue.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres describes the participation of women and girls in science as “vital” to achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, because “the world cannot afford to miss out on the contributions of half our population.”

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.

Original source: UN News
Published on 07 February 2019