Launching

“It starts with an individual action that leads to collective power and translates into exponential impact,” writes H.R.H. Princess Dr. Nisreen El-Hashemite, the Executive Director of RASIT, providing an effective overview. Explaining how #February11 is a global movement, inspired by RASIT’s Founder President, the late H.R.H. Prince Mohammad bin King Faisal (I) El-Hashemite, and moved into reality by herself and Dr. Helena Dalli, the European Commissioner for Equality, working together “to pave the way for every woman and girl in science to lead, impact, influence, and inspire to build a life they are proud to live without leaving anyone behind”, Princess Dr. Nisreen reflects on the many accomplishments of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, in terms of raising awareness, media and social interest, while maintaining a keen eye on the future: moving from vision to action .

The book opens with the late H.R.H. Prince Mohammad bin King Faisal (I) bin El-Sharif Hussein El-Hashemite, Professor of Management, and Founding President of the RASIT, writing in 1973, presenting a vision for equality in science for sustainable development that is still fresh today, and in dire need of implementation. Advocating for the elimination of gender disparities in society that hinder women’s access to education and skills, through a complete remodeling of our educational and social climate, the late Prince Mohammed outlines how we might pave the way for women in science to take up leadership positions, through which they can positively shape our society.

H.E. Nikhil Seth, Assistant Secretary-General, United Nations, and Executive Director, UNITAR, echoes the late Prince’s call 47 years on, highlighting the role of women in science for peace and sustainable development, and the worrying gap between female graduates and those progressing in STEM careers, given we need “all hands on deck” to utilise science to solve our global challenges, urging concrete actions for gender equality “on multiple fronts, through multiple channels, with multiple tools and with multiple means”.

Focusing on women’s empowerment for science and society, Felicia Moore Mensah, PhD, Columbia University, USA, and Lauren Paola Serpagli, EdD, Dominican Academy, USA, begins the second section highlighting the difference between equality (providing the same opportunities) and equity (accounting for differing life contexts, given the unequal status quo, bearing in mind life differences, identities, cultures etc., to proviide a truly levelled playing field), and calling for more focused attention and investment in girls in science and technology education for shaping society’s future.

Mackenzie M. Cremeans, PhD, of the Association for Women’s Geoscientists, and Leila M. Joyce Seals BSc, a PhD Candidate, highlight the “inherent intersectionality of any discussion about equality or inequality”, as they similarly unpick “our pursuit of equality, rather than equity, to level the playing field” with insights gleaned as women in the geosciences, to present potential solutions to the barriers female academics face in terms of specialising and career progression.

Dr. Justine Durno, St. Thomas’ Hospital, UK, uses her experiences as a Deaf female doctor, and the wider experiences of the d/Deaf community, to conclude on what changes need to happen for d/Deaf achievement to progress, including developing more Deaf schools, and Teachers of the Deaf, encouraging not repressing the use of sign language, recognising the social model of d/Deafness, and celebrating the d/Deaf community.

Professor Elena Luppi, PhD, from the University of Bologna, Italy, analyses the global trends and challenges as we seek equality in science for sustainable development, warning: “if we decide to neglect gender issues and the urgency for gender equality, we need to be aware of what we risk and the price we will pay and will let future generations pay. In order to overcome these limits, it is first necessary to devise empowerment interventions for women in the STEM sector, in order to implement their ability to overcome both internal and external barriers and adapt to a sometimes hostile work sector.”

Prince Zain El-Hashemite, Founder of the “Y 4 X Global Initiative”, aptly concludes this segment, encouraging all men and boys to join his movement’s pledge to support their female peers, colleagues, family members, and friends, for human dignity and sustainable development, through measures such as ensuring women have equal access to leadership opportunities, side by side with men.

With the World Economic Forum predicting that by 2022, 60% of global GDP will be digitalised, the third section considers how this might impact the attainment of SDG 5. Dr. Boutheina Guermazi, PhD, Director of Digital Development Global Practice at the World Bank, argues that “as the digital transformation affects economies and changes the nature of work, strategies to make sure technology becomes a great equalizer—rather than a divider—are essential”. Women, she argues must be centred in the creation and use of digitally delivered, life-enhancing services, particularly in crucial areas, such as education, health, finance and entrepreneurship, starting with targets, and scaling up successes to “mainstream gender analysis at every stage of project design and implementation”.

Dr. Cigdem Izgi Kogar, PhD, of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey asserts that the current digital divide “violates human rights and is against sustainable development goals”, proposing a scaled approach, encompassing “improved legal frameworks”, and “life-long education on gender equality in schools and in the workplace”, but also the identification of “specific areas in digital economy where women can be supported given the existing gender gap.. to “leapfrog” opportunities for women’s economic empowerment”.

Dr. Amal Qattan, PhD, from the King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Centre reflects on how digital technologies and investment in women has driven and will further drive sustainable development in terms of healthcare and scientific research in Saudi Arabia, through the ability to “mine [medical data sets] for groundbreaking discoveries”, urging “mutual dialogue” at the local and global levels to tap into the most vital yet untapped talent pool: “the unrealized talents and ambitions of women” .

Oksana Zirka Pyzik, from the UCL School of Pharmacy, considers how “the fourth industrial revolution has transformed how we interact and connect on a global scale and [how] the fusion of new technologies promises to dramatically transform health outcomes through the use of microchip implants and artificial intelligence to enhance existing clinical decision-making”. Highlighting how “#metooSTEM... showcased the democratic power of technology to amplify and empower women’s voices that for much of history have been shut out of public discourse”, Pyzik also warns of the enduring (and in some cases amplification) of “unfair treatment of women, in terms of pay and harassment”, and that “the decreasing number of women leading science, technology, research and innovation could widen the gender gap”, especially in our current context where “deep-rooted and century-old social prejudices can also find new ways to emerge through technologies, and [we urgently need] proactive policy reform to make online spaces safe for women”.

Melek Pulatkonak of the Turkish Women’s International Network, advocates for a “system change mentality”, and networking to “meet the digital missing middle”. “People, governments, companies, and NGOs”, she argues, “can collaborate collectively to create a safe, digital trusted place - the missing middle - we can finally shape the workforce composition in a diverse and equitable way. If we have the courage to embrace our people - experts in homeland and the Diaspora - who would like to help our countries as new resources to co-create an equitable future, we will pave the way for our best versions to come.”​

Section 4 considers investment in women in science for inclusive green growth. Drs. Alice Bouman-Dentener of DiploriA- Sustainable Development Solutions, The Netherlands, outlines how “contemporary research is biased towards women as water users”, despite the role of women in water management being an agreed “cornerstone for Integrated Water Resources Management”, the need for “increased data mining” of the “gender-water nexus” (where much of the “gender-water research” has been done by women), and outlines how women can benefit “the water-gender (SDG5- SDG6) interface… to further sustainable and equitable development” through “ensuring bespoke solutions that take local gender realities into account”.

Considering women and girls in water and sanitation from a social and legal perspective, Imad Antoine Ibrahim, from the Sant’ Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy, and Sara Sánchez López, of gLAWcal Global Law Initiative for Sustainable Development,“review the implications that the lack of access to water and sanitation poses to women and answer the following question: Are there effective instruments that can be used to tackle the lack of access to water and sanitation for women and girls?”, and “[highlighting] the need for effective domestic regulations to ensure the access of women and girls to water and sanitation where the recommendations of the global instruments adopted for this purpose can be incorporated within the domestic legislations”.

Dr. Gulbakhor Makhsudovna Makhkamova, PhD, of the Institute of Economy and Demography of Tajikistan at the Academy of Sciences RT, looks at how “not only applied but also basic science [as a] source of innovation” - can catalyse solutions from “improving health to combating climate change… based on [the sharing of knowledge and] the use of everyone’s talents”, calling for each of the SDGs to be viewed through a gendered lens, to ensure “diversity in research activities to expand the range of scientific tasks and enlarges the community of talented researchers, bringing new perspectives, talents, and creativity.”

Advocating “a wide variety of specific career pathways in nutrition”, Dr. Susan Finn and Dr. Marie Spiker from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Foundation explain how “nutrition intersects with issues related to land- and sea-based food production, water and sanitation, climate, energy, infrastructure, livelihoods, poverty, education, gender, and national security”.

Yana Popkostova, Founder of the European Centre for Energy and Geopolitical Analysis, presents women in science as the missing link in global low-carbon transition efforts, decrying the fact that “policy decisions and industry strategies globally continue to be conceived in a male and pale environment, where group-think and homogeneity deprives the world of the disruptive innovation that only cognitive diversity can produce”, and arguing that “to bolster agility and steer the energy economy onto pathway that is climate-resilient, diversity, inclusion and women’s empowerment within the global energy sector is a strategic imperative”.

#February11 concludes with a section written entirely by female student scientists, aged 10 - 20 years of age, who present their vision to action for 2030 and beyond. Beginning with Huaxuan Chen, Julie Levey, Olivia Cohn, Izgin Ozdas, and Zhala Sarmast reflecting on the Girls in Science 4 SDGs International Platform, where they “discuss and engage with science in the broadest sense as it pertains to sustainable development, develop the academic and soft- skills to succeed in college, the workplace, and in life, and forge lasting and sincere friendships with similarly motivated peers”.

Reflecting on her own privilege, and friends who have been less privileged, Megan Loh considers how science education and community engagement can “break the cycle of poverty” in lower socio-economic areas.

Urooj Ansari, and Athena Yao reflect on the reduced outcomes “for even academically-talented individuals from groups that face barriers of social exclusion, prejudice, and poverty as well as various other coexistent factors can often be disappointing: reduced graduation levels, eroded self-esteem, and wasted potential”, proposing policies and other methods of stemming this tide of wasted potential through growing empathy and conscious actions to support equity on campus.

Presenting “a roadmap of new thinking for a brave new world where our planet and people thrive”, Lara Louise Bevan-Shiraz and Alma Nordenstam outline how we might mobilise to “[navigate] our way towards Clean and Affordable Energy (Sustainable Development Goal 7) for all, by means of a mosaic of feasible yet bold energy solutions, for meeting current 2030 targets, and braver targets for 2045 and beyond”.

Considering the food system at large, Victoria Ballesteros-Gonzalez and Sthuthi Satish balance tradition with Agri-Tech to present a vision of how we might eliminate malnutrition, whereby nanotechnology, data gathering, and deep-learning analysis support vertical sustainable farms, farmers, and farmers’ markets, and “cultivate a younger generation who are connected with food and the industry”