Despite the high level of scientific progress and the efforts to achieve gender equality, we continue to find clear differences between men’s and women’s ratios in the field of science. On 22 December 2015, The United Nations General Assembly decided to establish an annual International Day to recognize the critical role girls and women play in science and technology.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrated on 11 February, is implemented by UNESCO and UN-Women, in collaboration with institutions and civil society partners. This Day is an opportunity to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. Gender equality is a global priority for UNESCO, and the support of young girls, their education, and their full ability to make their ideas heard are levers for development and peace.¹
Despite the progress made in certain societies regarding gender equality, however, the participation of women and girls in the scientific field is still limited, since we figured out that:
Many stereotypical bad ideas have been associated with women through the evolution of humans. Most societies force women to behave and make their decisions through ready templates without being given the right to freely determine their own destinies. The dominant image of girls’ future is marriage and motherhood, which is the primary goal of women in many eyes. Even though that role is very important, it does not have to be inevitable for every woman.
In addition, motherhood in such societies burdens women with the responsibilities of kids and household affairs entirely, which stands in the way of building their professional careers, and forces them, most of the time, to stay at home to take care of their families.
Regardless of the importance of women and girls’ participation in scientific fields, when a woman is encouraged to learn and work, it’s most likely in majors which don’t take long outside of the house and have fewer responsibilities, because of being afraid of falling short in the primary mission (take care of the house). In this case, a woman has two jobs: a payless job inside the house, and a little pay job outside the house.
Thus, it becomes difficult for women to enter scientific research fields because of the time that such fields require; which women don’t have due to the unfair household responsibilities, that are covered with a fascinating names such as “the sacrificial mother” or “the good wife”, and “the woman behind each great man”.
In addition the discrimination in wages between men and women in these fields, constitutes a clear injustice that makes the whole situation more difficult. In many cultures, it’s still believed that women are less mentally and physically capable of working in such professions, and that’s why they’re considered less productive and less good at their work.
The terms against women which force them to make their own decisions must be eliminated; such as the women, when reaching the age of twenty and thirty, are indirectly forced to get married in fear of society, in which they might be called a “spinster”. After marriage, she must have children to become a mother, and then she has to assume the responsibilities assigned to her according to this role. As for men, it’s often that their decisions are made out of their personal opinions. Even If they had to keep up with certain ideas forced by society, there’s nothing that’s standing in the way of their career development, on the contrary, they receive all the encouragement and support. This makes girls and women’s roles in science limited.
Clear laws of equal pay between men and women should be put in place, regardless of the job they do. In addition to working on changing the prevailing beliefs that women are less able to work, especially in science.
Laws must be put in place to help both parents when having a child; not only should the mother take maternity leave, but the father should also take paternity leave. Such laws will entrench the concept of equality between parents and will give both of them the right and obligation to nurture their kids without discrimination.
Limited efforts are made to support women reaching such scientific heights. The Marie Sklodowska-Curie Program aims to inspire ambitious young women to enter the nuclear studies field, that’s done through offering them scholarships to continue studying through masters’ programs and providing internship opportunities with the help of the Agency.³
Our initiative clearly works on bridging this gap by orienting most of its training courses to women; since we already know the difficulties they face, and by trying to achieve gender equality.
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References:
[1] UNESCO
[2] UN
[3] IAEA