Women and Girls in Science Day: why it matters
Tomorrow, Saturday February 11, marks Women and Girls in Science Day, as instituted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015.
Women have not achieved equality when it comes to science. According to UNESCO, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. Meanwhile the UN has flagged that, despite a shortage of skills in Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) subjects, women still account for only 28% of engineering graduates and 40% of graduates in computer science and informatics.
In other fields such as artificial intelligence, only one in five professionals (22%) is a woman.
This matters on multiple levels. It matters because it shows that, even in countries where progress has been made in women’s rights, there is still work to do. It also matters because STEM fields continue to experience a desperate shortage of skills.
There are two aspects to this: firstly, enabling girls and women to participate in STEM subjects, and secondly encouraging them to pursue this further. In many countries, girls and women continue to face obstacles to education.
The challenges here are likely to be rooted in the socio-political realities on the ground, and they require long-term and persistent attention to create change.
Outdated cultural attitudes
In other countries however, including the UK, girls have universal access to education but the participation of female pupils in STEM subjects remains significantly outweighed by the participation of male pupils. The causes here are more nuanced and come from entrenched cultural attitudes to STEM subjects. Everyone must play a part in challenging these attitudes.
More than that, however, concrete action is needed to ensure that women in STEM-centred workplaces are supported to be the best they can be.
Here at Mewburn Ellis we are proud that 60% of our firm are women, and that we have launched a number of initiatives designed to encourage women to succeed at the firm and in the wider STEM community.
This includes launching the firm’s IP Equality Special Report which celebrates some of the outstanding work being carried out by women working in IP and how inclusion relates to innovation. Meanwhile the firm has created a Women of Mewburn Ellis Network (woMEn) that enables women across Mewburn Ellis to connect, support each other and share ideas.
Menopause policies
Mewburn Ellis’ commitment to diversity and inclusion also includes the launch last year of a Menopause policy, and signing the Menopause Workplace Pledge from women’s health charity Wellbeing of Women.
Following the success of its Menopause policy, Mewburn Ellis is now supporting IP Inclusive in their Menopause activity and helping other firms implement change.
Meanwhile, all members of the Mewburn Ellis Management Board have personally signed up to the Senior Leader’s Pledge launched by IP Inclusive. Chief Inclusion & Diversity Officer Robert Andrews was a WIPR Diversity Champion for 2022 while associate Rebecca Campbell, a member of IP Inclusive’s Advisory Board, was a WIPR Diversity Trailblazer 2022.
When it comes to recruitment, the firm has a focus on encouraging more women into the profession and 50% of the firm’s trainees are now women. Last but not least, as part of its extensive charitable programme, the firm works with the British Science Association as their main firmwide charity, and this year will have donated over £120,000 to them in total to help encourage young people of all backgrounds get into science.
We recognise that we still have progress to make however, and that this is a global issue.
As a European IP firm working internationally, we call for governments all over the world to engage with this awareness day, and we pay tribute to the women and girls in science of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Frances Sailsbury is a partner and patent attorney at Mewburn Ellis. She can be contacted at: frances.salisbury@mewburn.com
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