Women STEM UP celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science

On 11th of February, women and girls, alongside partners worldwide, celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The day focuses on the reality that science and gender equality are both vital for the achievement of internationally agreed development goals, including the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. This day allows us to recognize the role women and girls already play in science, promote the idea of STEM careers to future generations of women, and educate men on their role in encouraging and mentoring women and girls in schools and the workplace to pursue their technical and scientific passions. Women’s ability to enter STEM fields offers them a wider variety of employment opportunities with higher pay than what is found in many other fields. The demand for STEM skills around the world continues to grow and it is up to us to ensure women and girls do not miss out.

Digital Leadership Institute joined Linköping University (SE), Stimmuli for Social Change (GR), University of Thessaly (GR) and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NO) to develop the Women STEM UP project striving to facilitate access and participation of young women and girls in education, training and science and technology, and promote their equal access to full employment and decent work.

To this end, it sets the following objectives:

To break down gender stereotypes in STEM higher education ecosystem by creating a Training programme for STEMeducators and staff offering concrete examples that can be used in teaching and supervision in the STEM-areas. This will build on ready-made gender sensitive guiding tools and resources to encourage University staff to use language and interaction patterns free of gender stereotypes and gender sensitive approaches when planning, teaching, assessing and collaborating with students. Professors, lecturers and lab assistants will be trained on how to create a more welcominglearning environment for undergraduate female STEM students.

To boost confidence and empower female students to continue their involvement in STEM during and after their studies. To achieve this goal a Leadership & Inspiration Academy will be developed, offering training, mentoring, inspiration and access to women STEM professionals acting as mentors and role models. Cognitive tools will be utilized to ensure that the resources match the needs and preferences of women. Female students will be exposed to role models and will be encouraged to question the perceived masculinity of STEM. They will be connected with women STEM professionals and receive mentoring and support to continue their studies and develop sustainable careers.

To boost women’s passion for STEM by assisting female students to explore and understand the creativity and social impact potential in STEM. A “Women STEM UP for GOOD” programme will be developed to encourage female students to design and develop state of the art projects for the STEM areas and to practically see the socio-technical importance of the implementation of gender issues in technical projects. To this end, we will follow an E-STEAM approach to extend the STEM skill set to include entrepreneurship and creativity (E standing for Entrepreneurship and A for Arts) as according to evidence ESTEAM has a stronger potential to increase women participation in these fields. Thus, women will be involved in hands-on problem-based learning activities to develop E-STEAM skills while addressing gender stereotypes.

Follow the developments of the Women STEM UP project at https://women-stem-up.eu/

SAVE THE DATE: Girls and Women Connecting for Environmental Change – Roundtable Discussions

Join us on the 16th of February 2023 for the event GIRLS AND WOMEN CONNECTING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE – ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS to exchange ideas and best practices on how to foster girls’ and young women’s sense of initiative for environmental action and improve their active citizenship skills and social innovation mindsets. Ultimately, the aim is to create synergies and open up opportunities for collaboration among the participants.

What you’ll gain?

  • Brainstorm with experts and practitioners on key strategies promoting greater participation of girls and young women in strategic, innovative ESTEAM (Entrepreneurship & Arts powered by STEM) sectors.
  • Gain insight into the experiences and lessons learned by other organizations and stakeholders and take these best practices back to your community.
  • Find opportunities of collaboration with a wide network of similar organizations.

What is the format of the roundtable discussions?

There will be four discussion tables set-up, each covering a topic (explained below). Participants can chose the tables they want to join for a 30 minutes discussion, and share their knowledge and suggestions on how to empower girls and young women as changemakers in our society. Participants are encouraged to be as specific as possible, to raise issues that arise in their day-today activities, and actionable ideas for better paths forwards. A follow-up session will present the main takeaways from the roundtable discussions.

Key outcomes

  • Following the event, we will gather the key insights in a Recommendations Paper and share it with all participants and stakeholders in our network.
  • Engage and connect community members to collaborate for future initiatives for the benefit of girls and women.
  • Opportunities for networking with like-minded professionals.

Discussion topics

TOPIC 1: Skills development for youth towards the Digital and Green transformations

Questions to consider: as civil society organizations and providers of non-formal education, how can we ensure young people gain a swift access to the requisite skills to enable them to be part of the solutions and to navigate the social, economic, and environmental challenges the world faces? What kind of skills and knowledge should we focus on? And how to include the gender lens in this process?

TOPIC 2: Gender mainstreaming in youth strategies

Questions to consider: What are the main challenges and opportunities of gender mainstreaming? How to strengthen the dialogue between civil society and policy makers to integrate gender perspective into the preparation, design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies, regulatory measures and spending programmes?

TOPIC 3: Best practices for impact: Youth – Gender inclusion – Environmental action

Questions to consider: What actionable ways to build gender equality and sustainability? What are the practices and tools you identified in your activities to improve the capabilities of civil society organizations for supporting more effectively their target groups and increase their impact?

TOPIC 4: Opportunities for cooperation for organizations working on youth, gender and environmental topics

Questions to consider: what are the needs of civil society organizations in terms of skills development, engagement capabilities or funding? what opportunities for collaboration are there and how to ensure they are accessible for all stakeholders?

Agenda

5:00 PM: Welcome and presentation of the We4Change project

5:30 PM: Roundtable Discussions

6:00 PM: Discussion on the main takeaways from each roundtable

6:30 PM: Networking dinner

Registrations: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/girls-and-women-connecting-for-environmental-change-roundtable-discussions-tickets-526528419677

Download here the brochure of the event.

For more information about the “We4Change: Girls and Women Connecting for Environmental Change” visit the project website: http://we4change.eu/