INTERNATIONAL DAY OF WOMEN IN SCIENCE: WHY IT IS NECESSARY

Today, February 11, is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. An event desired and introduced by the United Nations General Assembly starting in 2015 to celebrate all women who have dedicated their lives to research and encourage others to try their hand at this traditionally male area.

The gender gap in STEM subjects

This day also reminds us that STEM subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are still burdened by a huge gender gap. This is also highlighted by "Woman in Science", a report conducted by UNESCO in 2018 which gives us a not exactly rosy image of the condition of women in the laboratory. Only 28.8% of them, in fact, manage to win a place in the scientific field, dominated by an oligarchy of men.

Furthermore, in 2019, the "Respect-Stop Violence Against Women" project, carried out by Censis in collaboration with the Department for Equal Opportunities of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, found that female adherence to courses related to IT and Technologies is around 13%, while, in the case of industrial and information engineering, it undergoes a slight increase, reaching 22%. These figures are insignificant if we consider that the female students who opt for training in teaching are 91.8% of the total and 81.6% and 77.6% in the linguistic and psychological one, respectively. Therefore, it is not surprising that, at the moment, only 20 women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Science. 20 awards out of 600 total.

These numbers do nothing but confirm the need and importance of a day like this, designed to remind us that, once we have become aware of the problem, we must act immediately to stem it. This was especially supported by Elena Bonetti, former Minister for family policies, who, in asserting how fundamental the contribution of women in science is, addresses a warm invitation to the authorities in particular and to society in general: "We continue to promote and encourage young women to undertake training courses in Stem subjects. The future requires their courage, their intelligence, their creativity ”.

The Italian scientists of yesterday and today: there is no gender distinction when it comes to ingenuity

Below, we provide you with examples that go against the trend with respect to the gender gap in the scientific world and that are provided to us by our beautiful country. Examples that give us back hope and inspire us to go beyond conventions, breaking down the virtual barriers that prevent us from having confidence in ourselves if ventured into sectors other than those that we have been led to believe are within our competence.

Rita Levi Montalcini, first woman to enter the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1986.

Margherita Hack, astrophysicist and first woman to cover the role of director of the Astronomical Observatory of Trieste from 1964 to 1987, awarded the Gold Medal to the meritorious of science and culture for her commitment to research and civil rights.

Samantha Cristoforetti, graduated in mechanical engineering, is the first female astronaut of Italian nationality to perform a space flight, during which she sets the European record and the female record for staying in space in a single flight, a good 199 days.

Fabiola Gianotti, Italian physicist on her second term at the general management of CERN in Geneva, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. It is the first time in the history of the institute that the same person is reconfirmed as director.

Maria Rosaria Capobianchi, Concetta Castilletti and Francesca Colavita, the three scientists who, on Sunday 2 February, were able to isolate the Coronavirus in the Virology laboratory of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases at the Spallanzani hospital in Rome.