National Academies Hosts Webinar on Measuring the Gender Gap in STEM

Last week, the National Academies held a webinar titled, “Measuring and Reducing the Gender Gap in the Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences.” The webinar features four women who each wrote chapters of a new book titled, “A Global Approach to the Gender Gap in Mathematical, Computing, and Natural Sciences:  How to Measure It, How to Reduce It?” The book is the product of The Gender Gap Project, a project funded by the International Science Council and eleven partner  organizations with the aim to reduce the gap between women and men in STEM careers.
 
The four speakers include:

• Susan White, Interim Director of the Statistical Research Center (SRC) at the American Institute of Physics
• Helena Mihaljevic, Professor for Data Science at the University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Berlin
• Merrilyn Goos, Professor of STEM Education at the University of Limerick, Ireland, and Director of EPI*STEM – the National Centre for STEM Education
• Mei-Hung Chiu, Distinguished Professor of Science Education at the National Taiwan Normal University 

Presenters noted that only 30% of the world’s researchers are female, which is the main driving force behind the project. The aim of the Gender Gap Project was to provide information and data to understand the state of the gender gap in the sciences today, but also to use that information to drive people around the world to create interventions that will reduce barriers to entry for women globally. The project also aims to encourage young women to pursue careers in STEM fields.

Panelists went through how the study was conducted and shared how the responses can be used to achieve the greater outcomes of the project. There are a series of recommendations that have resulted from the project. Four of the recommendations are amid specifically at parents and instructors, seven are aimed at local organizations, and 10 are aimed at “scientific unions.” The specific recommendations for each group can be found in this handy pamphlet that summarizes much of the work accomplished by the project researchers.
 
For much more information, please visit the project’s website at: https://gender-gap-in-science.org/.