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The Working Group “Women in Science” aims to make the voice of women scientists widely heard to reach policy- and decision-makers with the target of a better future for female scientists. Moreover the group aims to raise broad awareness of the not yet fully exploited potential of female scientists’ and researchers’ contributions to science and research and to solving global challenges.
“Women in Science” believes in a global contribution by creating a platform where challenges and possible solutions are tackled in order to build capacity of its group members as well as of other women who would consider the Working Group as providing a role model for career success.
Watch the group’s video for the 2020 GYA e-Annual General Meeting here
The GYA working group on Women in Science would like to draw your attention to the Women in STEM resource guide from Maryville University (US). This in-depth resource guide was created for girls, young women, teachers and educators who are looking to share information that encourages women to study STEM and pursue careers in the STEM field.
Additionally, there is a “Guide for Women in Computer Science: History, Roles, and Resources“, also from Maryville University (US), and this Computer Science and Engineering Resources for Women in STEM.
For a list of group co-leads since the group was established in 2012, see here.
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Plans for 2024/25:
In November 2024, the group will work with the GYA working group on Science Education for Youth to co-organise an online symposium on “Communication in Science: the Skills for Young Researchers”.
In February 2025, the group will organise a webinar on the role of women in science and the challenges faced by women in science, on the occasion of the 2025 Global Women’s Breakfast meeting and the International Day of Girls and Women in Science.
In March 2025, the group will organise an online panel discussion on the occasion of International Women’s Day.
Additionally, the group is working to produce follow-ups to the workshop series on leadership for women in science, held in May and September 2024 (e.g., a toolkit, and other web-based resources).
In November 2024, the group together with the Science Education for Youth group, organised a two-part online symposium on “Communication skills”, led by Science Education group co-lead Reem Abou Assi. Up to 60 early-career researchers attended presentations by a number of GYA members and alumni, and learned about effective science communication, how to craft a professional CV or poster, and learned how to enhance their professional communication skills and build a stand-out personal researcher brand. A brief report is forthcoming.
In November 2024, group members together with members from several other GYA working groups, jointly published a statement on “Young researchers and scholars’ proposals for action for a sustainable present and future”. GYA Alumnus Renard Siew presented the statement during the “Climate Science: key take aways in 2024” event co-organized by the International Science Council (ISC) and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on 12 November 2024.
In September 2024, the group organised the second part of a workshop series on “Inclusive Leadership for Women in Science”, which built on past GYA Inclusive Leadership workshops. The workshops aimed to empower Women in Science – as well as other participants who are welcome to participate – to exercise leadership in an inclusive way. Interactive online sessions addressed topics such as imposter syndrome and self-advocacy, work-life balance, and resilience-building. See here for details.
In May 2024, as the first part of a workshop series, the group organised an in-person workshop on “Women in Science for Peace”, which was held as part of the GYA’s Annual General Meeting and International Conference of Young Scientists in Washington, D.C., USA. Read a brief report here.
In May 2024, the group finalised a booklet on “Challenges Faced by Women Researchers: Stories from all around the Globe“.
On the occasion of the Global Women’s Breakfast and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, the group organised an online event on diversity and inclusivity in science. Alice Kayongo from the Center for Global Health Policy & Politics at the O’Neill Institute at Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA, discussed diversity in science – breaking barriers, driving innovation. This was followed by Q&As from the audience; GYA member and co-lead of the group Mareli Claassens (University of Namibia) moderated. Some of the highlights of the session included Alice’s personal narrative about growing up in Uganda, without a personal computer until she attended college, and her most recent achievement when she presented a working report to the US Congress which informed USAID programming. Questions were asked around who controls “the knowledge” and how to make sure that all voices are represented in decision-making processes around knowledge control. Other questions from the audience included one about Alice’s experience, especially for early-career researchers, in her two life spheres, first the developing world and now the developed world. In essence, the session highlighted the importance of making sure diversity, in all its shapes and forms, is fully embraced in science and elsewhere.
In June, the group co-organised a meet-up of early-career-researchers together with the Rwanda Association for Women in Science exchanging anecdotal evidence of challenges for women in science. Read a comprehensive report here. The meeting was part of the GYA Annual General Meeting in Kigali, Rwanda.
Building on their campaign in 2022 (see below), in February and March, the group published several additional stories on social media platforms to contribute to #ThisLittleGirlIsMe campaign in support of the International Women’s day (IWD) 2023. You can read the corresponding blog entries here.
To celebrate International Women’s Day on 8 March, the group together with Springer Nature produced this video on Innovation and Technology for Gender Equality.
In February, the group organised a meeting inspired by the Global Women’s Breakfast, supporting the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. Six members from the Women in Science group participated, sharing their experiences regarding discrimination and harassment at work.
To further help celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science on 11 February, the group have created this uplifting video in support of women scientists – not just on 11 February, but every day!
In January, the GYA endorsed a call on leaders for immediate action to promote inclusion of caregivers and increase retention of women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) careers. The action plan had been drafted by Mothers in Science and 16 further organisations from across the world. Read the action plan for funding agencies here, which outlines a set of specific and actionable strategies to promote inclusion of caregivers and close the gender gap in research funding.
In December, GYA member Natalia Kucirkova co-authored a Routledge book on “Inspirational Women in Academia. Supporting Careers and Improving Minority Representation“, which looks at prevailing stereotypical expectations about the aspirations of many women in science, especially those with an ethnic minority backgrounds, and the resulting harm and discrimination.
On World Kindness Day on 13 November 2022, group members pledged to observe the global movement supporting kindness and compassion in their daily lives, especially at work, and to be leaders who inspire positive change. The COVID-19 pandemic has evoked timely reflections on what it means to exercise kindness while the world adapts to the ‘new normal’. It may be audacious to be kind during difficult times, but every attempt counts – and all are invited to join the GYA Women in Science working group in showing kindness to the people around us every day.
In September group member Monika Kędra gave a presentation on inclusion, diversity and equity at the GYA online event “Young and Global – A perspective on today’s challenges in science” together. This event was part of the Science Summit of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA77). Read more about the session and watch the full presentation here.
Furthermore, GYA members Éva Dékány and Stefania Mondello participated in an online workshop organised by GENDERACTIONplus (an EU Horizon Europe project with 26 partner organizations across Europe working to advance gender equality in the European Research Area). The workshop on “Consultation on tackling gender-based violence in academia” brought together early-career researchers representing various European National Young Academies, the GYA and other stakeholders such as associations of doctoral students in order to share their views and needs relating to this topic. The discussions at the workshop provided the development of a Call for Action on tackling gender-based violence in higher education and research, which was then presented to policymakers and high-level stakeholders within the research community at a conference on „Ending gender-based violence in academia” in November 2022.
In February and March, the group published several stories on social media platforms to contribute to #ThisLittleGirlIsMe campaign in support of the International Women’s day (IWD) 2022. You can read the corresponding blog entries here.
In 2021, he group conducted a survey among GYA members on discrimination and harassment at their workplace, led by Women in Science member Jonas Radl (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Spain) and GYA alumna Shaheen Motala-Timol (Tertiary Education Commission, Mauritius). The survey results were published in GYA connections 2022, you can read the full article here.
The Women in Science working group published an article in the GYA Connections magazine.
Group member Amal Amin (Egypt) was again part of the Organisation Committee for the World Forum for Women in Science without Borders, which took place 8-10 March 2021 at the Unversity of Duhok, Kurdistan Region, Iraq.
In October 2020, group members published “Motherhood in Science – How children change our academic careers“, a collection of 18 personal stories about being a scientist and a mother.
Group member Chern Ein Oon (Malaysia) wrote a piece on “Kindness in the face of COVID-19” for the Women of the Future Programme blog in June 2020.
In May 2020, members of the group published a paper on “GYA Women in Science stay and work from home: How might we make Covid-19 lockdown work for us?“. In this, they share their inspiring experiences on how they deal with the current challenging times balancing work and family responsibilities, while working hard towards finding solutions for the future of this world.
The World Forum for Women in Science – Brazil 2020 (4th International Conference for Women in Science without Borders) took place 10-14 February 2020 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It was organised by the Brazilian Academy of Sciences. WiS co-lead Shalini Arya (India) represented the GYA. See her brief report here.
The Women in Science group have produced two videos, one on “Women in Science for a better world“, and one about their group and its activities.
The 3rd International Women in Science without Borders Conference took place 12-14 March 2019 in Egypt. After successful conferences in Egypt (2017) and South Africa (2018), the third conference focused on ‘Science Diplomacy for Sustainable Development’. It was preceded by a training programme on ‘Science diplomacy and science advice’ on 10-11 March 2019. See here for a brief report.
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