Ada Lovelace, Marie Curie, Dorothy Hodgkin, Alice Ball, Chien-Shiung Wu, Jocelyn Bell Burnell... the list of female scientists who have made contributions to human progress down through the centuries is endless.
Gender equality has always been on the agenda for the United Nations (UN) – it is number five on the list of Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs. The UN believes that gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will play an important role across all 17 of the SDGs.
To this end, on 22 December 2015, the General Assembly adopted a resolution – A/RES/70/212 – to establish an annual international day to recognise the critical role women and girls play in science and technology communities. With other organisations dedicated to the advancement of women and girls in STEM disciplines, they agreed that 11 February would be the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Speaking at the inaugural event in 2016
Those words resonate in South Africa where, in 2016, the country finished 137th out of 139 countries in mathematics and science education league tables in the World Economic Forum’s Global Information Report. And before that report was published, we realised the part we had to play in promoting science as a subject choice and career path for girls.
In 2015, we partnered with Parktown High School for Girls and provided funding for the completion of a science centre, which opened its doors to the school’s 1,100 pupils in November 2016.
According to the school’s principal, Tracey Megom, the new science centre will encourage more girls to seek careers in traditionally male-dominated sectors. “I think it’s important for girls’ schools to produce young women who can take up positions in engineering and medicine,” she said. “So, we have a responsibility here to produce pupils who are really good at science, and I think a facility like this will help us to do that.”
Now pupils in Grades 8 and 9, who used to be taught science in normal classrooms, are taught in a laboratory environment. The effect was almost immediate – 30% more Grade 9 girls chose the sciences as matric subjects, with more of them now taking physical science.
“We’ve got close to half of our senior classes – around 100 pupils per grade – doing physical science,” said Tracey. It is benefiting an enormous number of girls in the school.”
It is a little too soon to measure the impact of the new centre, in terms of matric results. However, Tracey is in no doubt about the positive impact it is having so far. “Having a facility such as this encourages the girls to work hard. It empowers them and excites them about science.”
You can find out more about Parktown High School for Girls in our News 24 story here.
