International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 February- why is it important?

Today is International Day of Women and Girls in Science, 11 February

Here is some key data about why this is necessary

Stem Women quotes the following on its website

Core STEM subjects – Female students

2017/18
Number of female students - 112,720 – 35%
Since 2015, the number of women in STEM (women graduating in core STEM subjects) has grown from 22,020 to 24,705 in 2019. On the surface this would appear to show a linear increase, however, due to the more rapid growth in the number of men graduating in these subject areas, the percentage of women in STEM has fluctuated from 25%, down to 24%, and finally up to 26% where it has stalled in 2019.

The wise campaign also tracks progress

For support and an amazing archive on the history of Engineering see the Women in Engineering website which has the Woman Engineer journal from 1919-2004

Stemettes provides role models and offers events to encourage young women into STEM

For Data on the EU see Eurostat on number of graduates

For a broader picture the OECD 

there are stats for graduates in different  subject areas where gender can be compared. usually just binary 

Also papers discussing low levels of take up by girls of scientific subjects

Worldwide

According to the UNESCO Cracking the code: Girls’ and women’s education in STEM,  in 2017 only 35% of STEM students in higher education globally were female

Details of ongoing programmes can be found in the SAGA website