Worrying gender gap in science, says Chief Scientist at UNEP

New Delhi: There is a worrying gender gap in science, says Chief Scientist at UNEP Andrea Hinwood, while underlining that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls is essential to fostering reliable, representative and meaningful science. These are at the heart of the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and are critical to the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) Medium Term Strategy.

Quoting UNESCO’s Science Report 202, she points out that women account for 33 per cent of researchers, but only 12 per cent of national science academies’ members are women. They end up having shorter, lower-paying careers, and their work is underrepresented in high-profile journals.

Hinwood says the role of women in tackling environmental issues is very importyant, so it is a must to engage women and girls in science.

”You can’t fix the environment if you haven’t addressed underlying inequality. If you start to resolve some of the environmental dimensions – food security and water security – you might actually reduce conflict. Then you might see some shifts where people can engage more meaningfully about changing the environment.

The challenge is that to combat environment-related misinformation; you have to make your information available and accessible to anyone all over the globe. One of the things we want to do as an organization is to make our science open and accessible – and therefore gain trust. ”

She said there was need to engage girls earlier in their education, and need to provide them with opportunities and talk about what’s possible, particularly in developing countries. Moreover, thee was need to engage women and girls where they are.

”Often, people don’t even realize that they’re ‘doing science’. Having worked for a regulator, I used to hear people say, “We’re not scientists,” because they didn’t have a degree. But they were approaching problems using the scientific method: what’s the situation, what did they observe, what information did they collect, what conclusions did they draw, and how did they respond to it?”, Hinwood said.

The society should have more women participate in research –which will result in improving the science and that will result in environmental benefit.

”When I was a young woman we were always told that science was hard. That it was not for girls.There’s enormous pressure to fulfil particular roles. I was just very lucky that my mother encouraged me. I have been married. I have a couple of children. And I have managed that through the process,” the UN chief scientist said.

In her view, it’s important that young women have confidence in themselves because often – from a societal point of view – they don’t. They have to listen to that voice inside themselves that says, “I really like maths, or I love coding, or I love biology, or I love animals.I’ve always encouraged young women to follow that spark.

”Sometimes, it won’t be easy. But nothing worth pursuing is ever easy,” she said.

UNEP released this interview of its chief scietists on 11 February, which is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which recognises the often underappreciated role women and girls play in science.

–INDIA NEWS STREAM