Gender Inequality in Science Limits Progress Towards Solving Complex Global Challenges

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by Joyce Chimbi (nairobi)Tuesday, February 11, 2025Inter Press Service

NAIROBI, Feb 11 (IPS) - Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science and a time to take stock of progress, successes, and setbacks towards open and gender-inclusive science. Gender equality remains elusive in science, as only one in three scientists is a woman. Not only do these inequalities hold women back, but they also limit scientific progress.

“The future of the human race hangs in the balance. With science and technology far outpacing the capacity of most humans to keep up, we must arm our future scientists and future leaders with the knowledge, skills, and critical thinking abilities they need to survive and thrive in the brave new world of the 21st century,” says Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Executive Director Yasmine Sherif.

To achieve these goals, Sherif says the global community must empower an entire generation of girls in crises to receive the education, training, and resources they need to improve their knowledge and skills base in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM).

Today, less than two out of five STEM graduates are women, and only 12 percent of national academies of science members are women. The gender gap varies across scientific disciplines. Some fields, such as physics, tend to attract more men than women.

In spite of and because of these concerning gender inequalities in STEM, Sherif says this 10th anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is a time to also “recognize the groundbreaking work of leading women scientists throughout history, such as Marie Curie, who pioneered research on radioactivity and was awarded two Nobel Prizes in Science.”

“Today, we also recognize the power and potential of an entire generation of future scientists. Brave leaders such as ECW Global Champion Somaya Faruqi, who led the Afghan Girls Robotics Team in Kabul and built a ventilator out of car parts. Together with ECW and our strategic partners, strong visionaries like them inspire our global charge to ensure girls have access to STEM education from an early age, and women can break through the glass ceiling to find their rightful place in universities, labs, and research facilities across the globe.”

Faruqi is the former captain of the Afghan Girls Robotics. Their story is featured in the inspiring new movie Rule Breakers, premiering early March in theaters across the United States. In building the ventilator, the team had the support of their former governor in Herat City. It took them about three months to build the ventilator under very difficult times, as it was during the COVID-19 quarantine period and all the shops were closed.

The #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign is a compelling and poignant campaign developed in collaboration with ECW Global Champion, Somaya Faruqi. CREDIT: ECW

“For one screw, we had to call for the shop owner to open the store, and it took days to do that. But after that, when we saw that the ventilator was working, it was a feeling of relief, and I feel that it is something that I want to do to help the people. It is not just about building robots—it is about building robots and devices that can help people in the community,” says Faruqi.

Sherif stresses that STEM is not an easy road, especially for girls living on the frontlines of armed conflict, climate change, and forced displacement, where the thought of even attending school is elusive at best. Emphasizing that in all, there are now nearly a quarter of a billion crisis-affected girls and boys whose right to a quality education fit for the 21st century is interrupted by these protracted crises.

“Girls are among the most vulnerable. Rather than studying science or learning about technology, they are exposed to forced child marriage and unwanted pregnancies without their potentials ever being achieved,” says Sherif.

Faruqi was born in Herat, Afghanistan, in 2002. She says it has not been easy pursuing science and breaking barriers “in a country like Afghanistan, which is a very traditional society. It was really hard for girls and women to go to shops and work on cars, but I'm happy that I had the support of my dad, and by chance, I joined the robotics team.”

“When we started our robotics team in 2017, there were many, many negative comments on social media about us as girls in STEM engineering in Afghanistan. But after a while, when they started to see us go to other countries, participate in competitions, and win awards and medals, it was then that their behavior and mindset changed about girls and women in STEM and technology,” she says.

It all nearly came to an abrupt end. In 2021, the Afghan Girls Robotics Team traveled from Herat City to Kabul, the heart of Afghanistan—the Taliban had taken over Herat City, cutting off electricity and internet. The all-girls team had driven to Kabul to rehearse for a competition. Three days later, when Faruqi woke up and looked outside the window, the Taliban were already in the streets.

It is the dramatic escape to Qatar and a scholarship from the Qatar Fund for Development to pursue engineering studies in the United States that has kept Faruqi’s STEM dream alive, inspiring other girls and boys, including those in crises and emergency situations globally, to dream on.

She says that, in the United States, men and women in science work together. She hopes to see the same in Afghanistan, where the door to education for women and girls is narrowing with every new Taliban edict.

Sherif says it is possible to achieve this equity in science.

For instance, in Chad, through ECW investments delivered by UNICEF and partners, Khadidja is learning about science, math, and mechanics in a classroom designed to provide non-formal education to children that have been impacted by the various crises facing the nation.

On another continent “Nadejda, a Ukrainian refugee in Moldova, is building up her digital skills and even learning to develop a website thanks to support at an ECW-funded EDUTech lab in her new school.

"Technology, artificial intelligence, and breakthroughs in science have the potential to save humanity from our collision course with our own demise,” Sherif observes.

“We need to train the young women—and young men—who will guide us through this technological transformation. Our best investment is to ensure that every girl and boy on planet earth is able to access the quality education they need to bravely thrive in a world undergoing rapid transformation and face it head-on.”

Meanwhile, Faruqi uses her platform as an ECW global champion to amplify the voices of those left behind through the #AfghanGirlsVoices Campaign. The campaign elevates to the global stage the voices of girls being denied their right to education in Afghanistan. Featuring moving testimonies, artwork, poetry, cartoons and more from Afghan girls demanding their right to education, the campaign aims to build wide support for the cause.