Addressing gender bias in STEM is essential if we are to solve humanity’s most pressing challenges writes Professor Minna Palmroth chair of the global Millennium Technology Prize
A while ago, I was leaving my six-year-old daughter’s day-care centre, leisurely reading the upcoming monthly programme. Then I stopped abruptly and turned around. “In March, boys will research space,” the programme read. “Girls will learn expression skills”.
“In my experience as a professor of space physics, it is men who need the expression skills while women need to be encouraged into the field!” I shouted at the poor day-care staff.
While I’m not proud of the yelling, I still can’t believe what had been written – in Finland – a country highly reputed for gender equality.
According to UNESCO, women constitute 17.5% of the global workforce in technology-related fields, while around 30% choose science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields as major subjects to study. The World Economic Forum’s recent Global Gender Gap Report found that in engineering, women…
