Women in STEM

I’m certain at least some of us have been told, “Boys are smart, girls are simply hardworking”, when it comes to studying math or science. The mere perception one’s gender determines they are not good at a task makes each encounter with math and technology more fraught, triggering self-doubt in young girls.
Less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women and this under-representation occurs in every region in the world. The average falls to 18.5% in South and West Asia, with women accounting for less than 15% of researchers in India, dropping to single figures in Nepal.
Gender-stereotypes about how women are a natural fit in careers that are more expressive and human-centric and men in technical and math-intensive fields has brought a significant gender gap in STEM fields. And so Engineering and computer science — two of the most lucrative STEM fields — remain heavily male dominated. Giving women equal opportunities to pursue and succeed in STEM careers helps narrow the gender pay gap, enhances women’s economic security and ensures a diverse, talented driven and equitable STEM work environment.
The oldest record of women in science is probably that of Hypatia of Alexandria, Egypt. Hypatia was a Hellenistic Neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician. She carried out careful astronomical observations which eventually led to her murder by a Christian mob, when her teachings were found to contradict the views of the Church, in 415 AD.
While we can trace the contribution of women to science back to 370 AD, most of the women were not given the recognition they deserved. Only in the 1903 do we have a woman being awarded the Nobel Prize. Although, at first the committee intended to award the prize to the two men; however, one of the committee members alerted Pierre (her husband, who jointly received the award) of the situation and Marie Curie was added to the award. In 1911 Marie was awarded a second Nobel Prize in chemistry, making her the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes in different fields.
Even today these stereotypes exist, making to harder for women to mark their place in history. In most colleges, the number of women are significantly lesser than men. While the glass ceiling still stands intact, women are steadily gaining recognition for their work, albeit slowly.