A4 celebrates #WomenInScience

19 Feb 2021

Thursday 11th February was the United Nations International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The A4 group used Twitter to celebrate, posting a photo of the women that make up 50% of the A4 team.

Over the day we discussed the things that engage and inspire us to research ocean sciences, highlighting our diverse backgrounds and the paths that we have taken into the field. Our paths are highly variable, with some members growing up by the coast, with an enduring curiosity about the sea, to others that have found ocean sciences to be the perfect field to combine their interests in statistics, coding, modelling and earth sciences. In addition, we invited other women and girls to join us in our discussion using #WhyIOceanScience, hearing from researchers in the US, UK, Belgium and the Netherlands. Inspiring women and girls to participate in science remains vitally important whilst the gender gap in science exists. According to the United Nations, women make up less than 30% of researchers worldwide and continue to participate less in STEM-related subjects in higher education. The International Day of Women and Girls in Science provides an excellent opportunity to showcase the critical role of women researchers and to show the faces behind the science; providing role models and helping to overcome ingrained gender stereotypes. The A4 team would like to thank all the researchers involved in this initiative and hope to encourage future generations to choose STEM as a future career path.