Why the world needs more women in science and technology

The United Nations (UN) has established February 11 as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and on this date various entities and specialists have demonstrated to warn that the equal participation and the leadership of women and girls in the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is now more important than ever.

Consulting firm McKinsey & Company said on Saturday that “tackling existing underrepresentation could not only drive technology growth and innovation, but is also an economic necessity.”

and pointed out that In Europe, for example, if companies doubled the proportion of women in the tech workforce to around 45%, or around 3.9 million more women by 2027, GDP could be boosted. between 260,000 and 600,000 million euros.

According to a recent UNESCO report on STEM disciplines, women are barely 33% in the world of R&D (research and development).

According to data collected in Europe for the report presented by L’Oréal-UNESCO in 2022, but worth a general cliché, 72% of girls surveyed on this continent believe that it is important to have jobs that directly help the world. , but only 37% think pursuing a STEM education makes the world a better place, and less than 2% of girls intended to become engineers or computer scientists, compared to about 16% of girls who intended to become doctors.

A 2018 UNESCO Institute for Statistics report and a 2014 BCG (Growth Share Matrix) analysis for the L’Oréal Foundation note that there is a persistent gap between male and female graduates in THE PhD level. While in academic careers women appeared on an equal footing, among bachelor’s and master’s graduates they made up a higher percentage. But the gap persists at the doctoral level.

The figures mentioned are as follows: At the level of the title of baccalaureate or equivalent, a 53% women and 47% men. In the master’s degree or equivalent women were the 55% compared to 45% of men. The curve intersects in the title of doctorate which showed that there were 56% of men against 44% of women and increased a step further, reaching the research career of which 67% were men against one 33% women. And so the difference advanced since among the academic positions of the hierarchy there were 86% of men against only one 14% women. Finally, the gap becomes a chasm when it comes to evaluating scientific prices, since if we take into account what is considered the highest price, the Nobel Prize, throughout its history there has been hardly any 4% of women compared to 96% of men.

The report presented by L’Oréal-UNESCO in 2022 also warned that the fourth industrial revolution presents the “risk of perpetuating imbalance gender,” since “the areas most relevant to Industry 4.0 are those in which women remain underrepresented in most countries, namely computer science (information technology), computer science, nanotechnology, physics, mathematics and engineering”.

For this claim, the authors of the analysis relied on data indicating that, 70% of workers in positions that are in risk of disappearing because of automation, they are women. The data is particularly alarming if one takes into account that, according to the same study, “for 2050 half of the current jobs will have disappeared. In the same vein, it is estimated that women will lose 5 jobs for 1 gained thanks to Industry 4.0, against 3 jobs that men will no longer have for 1 gained.

Continue reading: