Women in STEM : the future catalysts for change
STEM is ever changing. It is vast, innovative, and transformative. It pioneers the very way in which people live, see the future, and treat the world ; There should be a place for all in STEM, yet women are still profoundly underrepresented.
According to the UNESCO 2025 factsheet on status and trends of women science, less than a third of women around the globe are researchers, and only 35% of STEM graduates are women. These aren’t just figures, they are a reflection of how even within a progressive and ever-changing society, women’s voices still go unheard, and their imagination doesn’t get to craft innovation in the way it should. This calls into question the fact that If women represent half of the population, who is building a future in STEM that is an equal representative of all the people on Earth?
The women who are making the impossible possible, that’s who.
Women in STEM who have shaped the approach to HIV/AIDS.
Women in STEM have been integral within the fight against HIV/AIDS. They have spearheaded the way we understand HIV/AIDS, and changed the narrative of individuals’ lives, so AIDS is no longer the final chapter for those with HIV – and millions have a chance to lead healthy, full lives.
Dr Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, is a Nobel prize winning, revolutionary virologist and activist, who changed the trajectory of AIDS by jointly discovering HIV. Françoise was born Paris, studied natural sciences at the university of Paris, where she began volunteering at a laboratory that studied retroviruses that cause cancer in mice ; after the completion of her PhD and fellowship at the National Institute of Health in the USA, she came back to the Institut Pasteur, to study in a lab exploring the relationship between retroviruses that cause cancer . In 1982 when a new disease that began devastating the world, was emerging, causing Françoise to devote her attention to this mystery. On the 4th of February, Françoise and Luc Montagnier, observed the first HIV virus under an electronic microscope ; leading to the later publication of scientific evidence that HIV causes AIDS, changing the way we look at AIDS forever. This moment in time paved the way for treatment, understanding, and opportunity to combat AIDS worldwide.
Professor Quarraisha Abdool Karim is a South African clinical epidemiologist, has been pivotal in transforming women’s HIV prevention, an activist and researcher in infection and transmission of HIV and Herpes in women. Her monumental CAPRISA 004 trial (2010), proved a gel called tenofovir (an antiviral medicine in the form of gel, applied to before intercourse to prevent HIV infection), giving women alternative ways to protect themselves. At a time period in South Africa where nearly 1000 South Africans were dying of AIDS every single day, CAPRISA 004 trial reduced HIV infections by 39%, and 54% in women with high adherence (women who used the tenofovir almost exactly as instructed), gave hope. This trial not only aided women to protect themselves, but gave them back their power and control over their own bodies.
So what can you do ?
#GETINVOLVED
- Explore your interests on online platforms.
- Support organisations that aspire to educate people, and challenge misinformation, and share stories and lived experiences of others.
- Volunteer with local organisations, and apply for programmes, mentorship initiatives, and opportunities near.
There is a place for Women in STEM, we are half population, and drive innovation shaping the world we want to live in. So let’s build together.
This article written one of our Penta Young Reporters, Arlene.