When it comes to women and girls in STEM, there is a clear disconnect. Although women and girls participate widely in STEM education, their involvement does not carry through to equal influence in research, emerging technologies, or leadership positions. This International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the United Nations (UN) theme is ‘Synergizing AI, Social Science, STEM, and Finance: Building Inclusive Futures for Women and Girls’ and looks into the areas that must be addressed for an equal STEM culture to flourish.
Equality in STEM is a diverse and nuanced subject, and no single discipline can address this disconnect alone. This is where the UN believes that collaboration between STEM, social science, finance, and AI needs to come into play.
For change and impact to be meaningful, the circuit must be complete.
STEM would provide the technical foundation. Women already enter higher education in large numbers, but the data shows attrition as careers progress, particularly in advanced and emerging fields such as quantum and AI. By embedding gender balance within STEM education, research teams, and technical training, the pipeline issue is addressed at its source rather than retrospectively.
Social science explains why these gaps persist. It brings evidence on structural bias, cultural norms, workplace practices, and policy design, helping to identify why women drop out of research careers or are excluded from leadership. Without this lens, AI and STEM solutions risk reinforcing existing inequalities rather than correcting them. Social science ensures that interventions are designed around real-world behaviours and institutional barriers, not assumptions.
AI is both a risk and an opportunity. On one hand, it can amplify bias if trained on skewed data or developed by homogenous teams. On the other hand, it can be used deliberately to analyse disparities, improve access to healthcare, education, and climate resilience, and support evidence-based policymaking. If it is developed by diverse teams and governed responsibly, AI can become a tool for inclusion rather than exclusion.
Finance is the key that enables scale and durability. Even in areas where women-led research or startups exist, a lack of access to capital limits growth and impact. By directing investment through gender-smart funds, impact investing, and blended finance, financial systems can reward inclusion and fund long-term STEM education and R&D.
By combining these elements, it carries gender equality from a side objective to a measurable performance outcome, and together they tackle a core challenge: the systemic leakage of women from science and technology pathways despite strong early participation.
By stepping back and looking at how teams and disciplines can come together on a macro scale, it addresses not only skills gaps but also biased systems, underfunded opportunities, and governance structures that fail to prioritise inclusion. Rather than treating gender imbalance as a workforce issue alone, the UN reframes it as an interconnected economic, social, and technological problem that requires coordinated action across disciplines.
A few stats from the UN on the current climate of women and girls in STEM:
- Globally, young women are more likely than young men to enter higher education, with 46% enrolling within five years of completing secondary school, compared with 40% of men. Despite this, women account for only 35% of science graduates
- Women remain underrepresented in scientific research worldwide. In 2022, women made up just 31.1% of researchers, underlining the persistence of gender gaps across the sector
- Participation is even lower in emerging fields. In the quantum sector, fewer than 2% of job applicants are women, equivalent to one in 54, while 80% of quantum companies reportedly have no women in senior leadership roles
- Gender perspectives are also limited in academic research output. Among thousands of scientific articles in water-related disciplines, fewer than 100 addressed gender or women alongside hydrology. In 2022, nine of the top 21 hydrology journals published no articles referencing gender, with the remainder publishing between one and 14
- In artificial intelligence, women continue to be a minority, representing only one in five professionals, or 22%, in the field
IEEE member and professor in computational intelligence at the Manchester Metropolitan University, Keeley Crockett says: “When women and girls see themselves reflected in STEM – whether in classrooms, laboratories, leadership roles, or high-impact research – they gain concrete evidence that they belong in these spaces and that their ideas and contributions matter. Representation is not symbolic; it is structurally transformative. It reshapes disciplinary norms, challenges implicit biases, and broadens the range of problems that science and technology choose to solve.
“Overcoming these challenges requires interventions at several levels. At the educational stage, we need inclusive pedagogical practices, visible role models, and learning environments where girls can take intellectual risks without fear of negative judgment. In professional settings, we must normalise equitable hiring, promotion, and leadership pipelines, supported by transparent processes that recognise diverse forms of excellence. Creating psychologically safe cultures – where women’s expertise is heard, credited, and valued – is essential for retention and long‑term career progression.”
Senior member of the IEEE and engineering trainer at the Advanced Manufacturing Training Centre, Ayesha Iqbal adds: “As a woman in engineering, I have witnessed both the power of representation and the limitations created by its absence. On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the focus must move beyond inspiration to action: fostering inclusive cultures, creating visible role models, and providing deliberate support at every stage of a career. Breaking down barriers requires challenging bias, widening access to opportunities, and building environments where women’s voices are genuinely heard and valued.”
