Girls and Women in STEM

February 11th is the International Day of Girls and Women in Science, as approved by the UN in 2015. We want to have more and more women in STEM - Science, Technology Engineering and Mathematics!

The date is celebrated by the UN and UNESCO, seeking to recognize the importance of women's contribution in this field and encourage girls to be interested in and pursue careers in these areas, in view of the large existing gap.

The photo I used as the cover for this article was taken in 2022, at an exhibition at Museu Catavento dedicated to women in STEM. There are 12 honored scientists from different eras, nationalities and areas of knowledge. Me, my sisters, my daughters and my nieces made a point of registering this photo with the women who made history and became models for those who came later! I'm there in front of Ada Lovelace, the world's first programmer, and next to my little game designer and programmer in training, my youngest daughter!

The video that I share below is a grace and helps us to reflect on the unconscious bias regarding the feminine and the masculine. In 2018, Mattel, Inc. launched a collection of Barbies in honor of International Women's Day, featuring Frida Kahlo, Amelia Earhart, Katherine Johnson... and each time they launch other dolls that represent individuality and the beauty of diversity!

The report produced in 2020 by UN Women “Las Mujeres En Ciencias, Tecnología, Ingeniería Y Mathematics En América Latina Y El Caribe” proposes to expose the gender barriers that exist today in science and technology, present in all stages of development, from an early age and structurally, in society. It is urgent to mitigate these obstacles, having as starting points a greater reach of representation of girls and women in the STEM areas. The economic recovery of countries and various sectors in the face of the current pandemic scenario is directly linked to the incorporation of STEM areas, which in 2050 will represent around 75% of jobs, according to UNESCO.

UNESCO, in the publication “Cracking the code: girls' and women's education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)”, addresses possible barriers to the low representation of women in STEM areas and in ways, from examples to the around the world recognized today, to achieve gender equality and the economic empowerment of girls and women through education.

The NGO Inspiring Girls International emerged with the aim of inspiring girls to come to STEM Careers. I take advantage of this article to remember the video I produced a few years ago with Global Sodexo, in partnership with this NGO.

For the Technology area, I suggest to take a look at MCIO Brasil , the Blog of Associa??o Ser Mulher em Tech , the community Women In Technology (WIT) , the events and courses of PrograMaria .

For children interested in Technology, I recommend BYJU'S Future School, a company that was born in India and has already conquered 40 countries, teaching programming to children with a very interesting and engaging methodology (here I leave an invitation to a free class). This company also acquired Osmo, which I fell in love with many years ago and represented the beginning of my daughter's interest in the area, at the age of 4, programming in blocks in a playful way, as shown in the figure.

It is important that all of us, men and women, work on our unconscious bias. This article from the Harvard Kennedy School details how the adoption of "blind" audiences (without the evaluators seeing who was playing) changed the gender balance in the 8 North American symphony orchestras that participated in the study, increasing hiring by 30% of women musicians and revealing the existence of a gender bias.

Finally, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science recalls that ensuring greater representation is directly linked to reducing situations of social vulnerabilities caused by gender inequality, allowing for economic empowerment and greater contribution to the sustainable development of the planet in accordance with the 2030 Agenda, approved by the United Nations Assembly.

We can all be whatever we want!