#IDWGS Essay - Women and Girls in Science Leadership, a New Era for Sustainability by Divyanshi Gaur

Women and Girls in Science Leadership, a New Era for Sustainability

According to the UN, recognising the role of women and girls in Science as agents of change, including in view of accelerating progress towards the achievement of SDGs 16 and 17 and to discuss women’s leadership in achieving the three pillars of Sustainable Development, namely Economic Prosperity, Social Justice, and Environmental Integrity, the main theme of the 9th International Day of Women and Girls in Science is: “Women and Girls in Science Leadership, a New Era for Sustainability”, whilst the subtheme is “Think Science ... Think Peace”.

Despite progress in gender equity and growing interest over the last decade in computer science, engineering, math, and statistics among both men and women, the underrepresentation of women in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields continues to persist.

This disparity leads to a lack of diversity and inclusion, and ultimately limits the potential of the STEM industry.

Factors Contributing to the Gender Gap in STEM

The gender gap in STEM has been attributed to several long-standing and deeply entrenched realities, including the following:

Stereotypes: If we close our eyes for a moment and are told to imagine an engineer, the most likely picture that majority will get is a guy sitting alone on a computer, nerdy pocket protectors, or maybe a young guy in a hoodie like Mark Zuckerberg. But there may be no or very few people who will imagine engineer as women. It’s usually considered that very few women who are crème de la crème can survive engineering, physics, pure mathematics, or calculus. While it’s normal for men to opt for research or a career in these fields, but you need to be genius if you are a women to survive in these fields.

Even in 2024, this stereotype is still alive because many individuals still associate STEM fields with masculine qualities, leading to stereotypes that can discourage girls and women from pursuing STEM education and careers.

It’ll be hard to come across a girl who would not have played with Barbie dolls, kitchen sets, stuffed toys, and art and craft books, fairy tale storybooks. While boys childhood toys would most likely be cars, construction toys like Legos, or erector sets, or Lincoln legs, fun science kits, Rubik’s cube, etc. The notable point is that boys who are playing with these construction toys or Rubik’s cube are developing their spatial skills in their early days, but isn’t it a shame that down the years to the adulthood girls have underdeveloped spatial skills, since it’s generally expected to treat a girl like a princesses, wearing tiaras, making sure that it is a norm in the society and a well-known industry secret that “construction toys for girls don’t sell”. And this is also the reason due to which boys outshine girls in spatial skills test, having more spatial awareness than girls.

Normalizing these stereotypes is important, even our grandma, or housewives are also an engineer because they solve everything in their daily chores by her own. They use logic. And that's engineering. Girls need to learn to be like them instead of just studying books and passing the exams; they need to apply their knowledge in real life.

Lack of role models: Women remain underrepresented in STEM leadership positions, which make it harder for girls and women to find role models and mentors in the field.

But it isn’t necessary that girls only consider CEOs, or Nobel laureates as their role models.

Women can even find role models in other women who are only 2-3 steps ahead of them, this helps in connection on personal level by learning from their journey and finding inspiration from it.

Unconscious bias: Unconscious biases in hiring, glass ceiling effect in promotion, and grant funding can disadvantage women and lead to their disproportionately low representation in STEM.

Work-life balance imbalance: STEM careers can be demanding, and some women may opt out or choose to work part-time to handle family responsibilities, which can impact career advancement, when they have kids. It is necessary to support women to help them continue their career and family life by sharing of family responsibilities equally amongst both men and women.

Implementing Strategies:

There are various strategies that can be implemented to close the gender gap in STEM. These include:

Encouraging girls to pursue STEM education: It is essential to introduce girls to STEM subjects early on to help dispel the stereotypes associated with STEM and provide them with role models. Programs like Girls Who Can Code, Black Girls Code, and Million Women Mentors have been successful in inspiring girls to pursue STEM education.

Promoting female role models: Having visible female role models in STEM is crucial to inspiring and encouraging girls and women to pursue STEM careers. Organizations should prioritize diversity in their hiring and promotion practices to increase representation at all levels of leadership. Because only by inspiration , success and role models women will be encouraged to stay in their profession, also paving path for the young girls who aspire to make a career in STEM fields.

Encouraging women to stay in STEM careers: It is important to create a supportive environment that spurs women to remain in STEM careers. This can be accomplished by offering mentorship and sponsorship programs, providing opportunities for career advancement, and creating flexible work arrangements. Companies and institutions can work toward creating inclusive workplaces by identifying and addressing unconscious biases and fostering a culture of inclusivity. This can be achieved by implementing diversity and inclusion policies, and providing flexible work arrangements. Initiatives that include training, mentorship, and networking events can help women develop the skills and confidence needed to succeed in STEM fields. Breaking down structural obstacles, such as the gender pay gap, lack of family-friendly policies, and gender bias in grant funding is crucial in closing the gender gap in STEM.

Reaping the Benefits:

Closing the gender gap in STEM fields can have numerous benefits for the global community:

Promoting diversity and inclusion: Gender equity can foster diversity and inclusion, leading to more innovative solutions to societal challenges. Increasing gender diversity in STEM fields can lead to improved research outcomes, as diverse perspectives can provide unique insights into research questions. Greater gender diversity in STEM fields can lead to the development of products and services that better meet the needs of all consumers.

Economic growth: Losing the gender gap in STEM can help address the skills gap in the STEM workforce, leading to economic growth and job creation.

Social progress: Narrowing the gender gap in STEM can contribute to broader social progress, as greater gender equity can lead to a more just and equitable society.

Thus, closing the gender gap in STEM is a complex issue that requires a multifaceted approach—from instilling confidence in girls within families to creating incentives for women to join and stay in STEM. We have the collective opportunity to elevate human endeavour by empowering women with the freedom of choice in educational tracks and career trajectories. Ultimately, through a more inclusive economy, we can unlock the full potential of STEM-related industries and tackle the world’s most pressing challenges. Women contribute to almost 50% of the total world’s population. It is to be noted that the low ratio of women in STEM career is a concerning matter. 

STEM career is helping in making advances in our society, be it global warming, a medical breakthrough, biggest technologies that are changing our everyday life, and with half the population being female, they deserve the female perspective, it will only get better with the female perspective. So, the leaking bucket of STEM career where there is much hype over getting more women in STEM, the issue of retaining them over a longer term is receiving less attention than it deserves. 

These problems need to be solved to make a more inclusive society which can only be achieved by the family support, educators support, breaking of stereotypes, inclusive work culture, and not to classify the STEM women professionals achievements on the sole basis of their gender as a women, i.e., they have access to such stellar STEM career only because they are a women, and not on the basis of their merit, or hard work. These steps may in turn encourage our next generation of female population to pave path in STEM fields on an equal ratio to men.

About the Author.

I'm Divyanshi Gaur currently studying at MJRP university, pursuing my graduation in BSc LLB(currently in VIII semester).