In 1969, Margaret W. Rossiter, a renowned American historian of science, in an informal gathering, asked her professor, "Were there ever women scientists?". She received an authoritative, resounding and absolute no. Later, she heard Marie Curie's name coming into the conservation who was dismissed as a helper to her genius husband. This kind of subordinate position of women in science has been a long term belief and sadly continues even after hundreds of years.
Science and technology reflect who we are as people, as a society and women are a massive part of it. Despite the significant contributions, women's inferior position is more of the camouflage's result over their presence in the field. Women's participation in STEM is not new to the "modern world". It ages back to as early as 2700 BCE in ancient Egypt, with women practising medicine in the pharaoh's court.
On December 22, 2015, UNESCO and UN Women through the implementation of Resolution A/RES/70/212 has decided to proclaim February 11 as International Day of Women and Girls in science. This day is celebrated to help end gender bias, increasing motivation and investments for STEM education for women and girls, so the whole world can benefit from their groundbreaking contributions. It aims to celebrate women's achievements in science, who are known and unknown, remembered and forgotten, who have paved a path with their hard work and determination, making it possible for others to succeed too. It attempts to help people recognize that full and equal access to education, participation and innovation is crucial for achieving gender equality and the empowerment.
Despite the efforts for bridging the gender gap, the progress is plodding. According to the data, UNESCO's science report revealed a bitter truth that only 30% of the global research pool comprises women. This report also describes an alarming statistics that although women hold 53% of bachelor's and master's degree, these stats drop to 43% of PhD graduates, and falling to 28% at researcher level. UNESCO Institute for Statistics report shows that women researchers' contribution is only 13.9% in India, ranking second-last in Asia. Even after choosing a career in science matters do not improve. Deep-rooted gender stereotypes lead to male students getting more opportunities compared to female ones. Imbalance in recognition can be seen in the statistics of Nobel prize recipients. Since 1901, among the 923 laureates, only 48 are women. Of these 48, 19 have been awarded, representing only 9% of the recipients this year. Worse is Female researchers in STEM fields face substantial pay gaps and an increased likelihood of workplace sexual harassment. It becomes necessary to scrutinize the causes that prevent women from pursuing research and bias in opportunities, gender pay gap, discriminatory and harassing behaviours.
Our first step towards bridging the gaps and establishing equality is listening to women researchers, act upon their concerns and celebrate their successes. Through the celebration of International Day of Women and girls in science, the United Nations invites all of its members to observe the day in an appropriate manner, promoting equal participation and training in every opportunity possible, eliminating discriminatory behaviour in every field, and thereby encouraging science education policies and programming, for increased participation and recognition for contribution for women in science. In the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres
"To rise to the challenges of the 21st century, we need to harness our full potential. That requires dismantling gender stereotypes. On this International Day of Women and Girls in Science, let's pledge to end the gender imbalance in science."
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