It's International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
It was established on 22 December 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly to promote full and equal access to participation in scientific research.
Many institutions and scientific bodies will participate with initiatives, events and meetings throughout Italy, both in person and online.
The social channels of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics join the #WomenInScience campaign, in which other large international laboratories such as CERN in Geneva will also participate.
Italian girls Stem below average in the EU, but growing
The Day is an opportunity to reflect on the results achieved so far, but above all on the many still to be achieved.
A first piece of data is provided by the Deloitte Stem Observatory: Italian girls enrolled in a degree course in the so-called Stem subjects (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) are only 14.5% of those who attend university, very below the European average.
About half of the interviewees still talk about gender stereotypes, which too often constitute a strong disincentive to undertake these courses of study.
The gap then ends up having amplified repercussions on the world of work, as emerges from the 2023 study published in The Lancet Regional Health - Europe: women in Europe are gradually abandoning their academic careers, making up just 33% of researchers and only 26% of top figures such as full professors, department and research center directors.
A gap that is worsening precisely in STEM: if for the humanities women occupy over 30% of the highest career positions, the figure drops to 22% for the natural sciences and 17.9% for areas related to engineering and technology.
Here too, Italy is far behind, ranking third to last in Europe.
But the barriers to break are encountered at a young age.
According to data from another research carried out by Ipsos for Save the Children and released in 2022, scientific subjects continue to be perceived by girls as 'not very suitable' for them, despite the fact that they intrigue 54% of female students.
To overcome the difficulties that women and girls still face, initiatives such as that of the University of Milan can be useful, which has issued a call for projects coordinated by young researchers returning from maternity leave: the objective is to motivate them to continue their scientific career.
The 'Girls@Polimi - Scholarships for future engineers' project of the Polytechnic of Milan is aimed at supporting female students in the STEM disciplines, which aims to encourage girls to achieve their goals.
Many universities, institutions and research bodies will use the occasion of the Day dedicated to women and girls to bring them even closer to the world of science.
Many events involve the National Institute of Nuclear Physics, from Rome to Cagliari, passing through Turin and Florence, with lessons, meetings and theatrical performances aimed above all at young female students.
The Infn's social channels also join the #WomenInScience campaign, which will give space to the contributions of four great scientists to the advancement of knowledge: Vera Cooper Rubin, Marietta Blau, Chien Shiung Wu and Milla Baldo Ceolin.
The National Institute of Astrophysics is also focusing on a show: 'STEMmano ponno esse donne o ponno esse scientiate', organized by the scientific dissemination project La Scienza Coatta, scheduled for 11 February in Rome.
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