We celebrate female scientists and open the door wider for young talents

2020 proved again that talent has no gender: we faced many unexpected tasks and we had to react very quickly. The value of knowledge increased even more, and it fuels our success only when paired with great collaboration. It’s time to open the door wider for female talents and put even more focus on performance and results.

Today we celebrate those female scientists who have been saving many lives by developing techniques for virus testing and creating vaccines against COVID-19. Their performance has proved again that talent has no gender and creating diverse and inclusive teams is not just the right thing to do, it is the most important source of innovation.

If we can consider our differences as an opportunity to get more points of view, we will always find solutions faster. We experienced it at first hand: MOL Group has managed to defend its colleagues’ health by working together with hundreds of health care professionals, listening to its experts, and investigating the best technologies for virus testing.

We felt more than ever that knowledge is power, but we need to keep in mind that it can only fuel our success if we truly collaborate. Eliminating bias is a must: it’s time to open the door wider for female talents and put even more focus on performance and results. International Day of Women and Girls in Science, just like every day, is a perfect occasion to raise awareness around women and girls in science and stand for their representation. Namely, science is still one of the areas where gender inequality is visible - less than one third of all scientific researchers worldwide are women. We need to showcase a clear career path to the girls who are interested in STEM studies, and we must support our female colleagues to become role models for others.

At MOL Group we believe in equality, but we also know that we still need to work for it. Therefore, we dedicated a scholarship program for female engineers among other talent management activities. The Growww Female Engineers Scholarship Programme promotes STEM studies and encourages young women to start their career in the energy sector. We would like to prove them that they should not consider it as a male dominated but rather a future- and result oriented industry.

We are proud of the alumni of our Scholarship Programme, we have already met many talents, and we will meet even more. The final competition of the Programme will be held on the 3rd of March and young engineers from Croatia, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Pakistan and Czechia are currently preparing for the challenge.

Their enthusiasm and agility remind us why we need more engineers and scientists in society. And we will continue to promote STEM studies among all talent and encourage young girls to follow their dreams, since they have the chance to shape the world, just like their predecessors have.

Zdravka Demeter Bubalo, MOL Group HR Senior Vice President

Viktória Márton, MOL Group SD & HSE Vice President