In 2015, world leaders adopted the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda and its 17 goals. In the same year, the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted the first international resolution to recognize the role of women and girls in science in achieving sustainable development. This 70/212 resolution proclaims February 11 as the annual International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
In that same year, I was 11 years old, and I had heard about gender equality in science for the first time. I was surprised to know that there is such inequality between boys and girls, men and women in all fields. I was surprised particularly that in school, we (boys and girls) sat together and received the same information from our teachers. I began a thorough search on the internet and many questions were raised in my mind: why girls do not choose scientific professions as a career, is that true? What stops them from pursuing their career in science? Are women in science valued less than men? My aunt is a woman in science, the doctors at hospitals and teachers at schools and universities are women in science. Just by searching the subject of women in science, I see a great number of women who worked hard to develop societies and the world. Then why do we have such inequality between men and women? Who made one superior and the other is inferior? To be equal or inequal, all starts within the family.
In early February 2016, I officially requested from the Royal Academy of Science International Trust (RASIT) organizing committee of the first International Day of Women and Girls in Science to give me the floor to speak in support of women and girls in science.
There were many men and women talking about the problem of gender inequality in science, but they did not emphasize the solution. In my speech on February 11th, 2016, I spoke about our family tradition. The men in my family have a tradition but before I tell you about it, what do you think about the word tradition and how is one formed.
A tradition starts as a good act or practice and when we repeat such act overtime it becomes a tradition. Throughout history the men of my family beginning with my greatest grandfather the Prophet Mohammad of Islam, all the way to my great grandfather King Faisal (I) of Iraq and to my grandfather HRH Prince Mohammad – the Founder President of RASIT, have been supportive of the women in our home, as well as developing countries having a good quality of education. The example of my aunt, Princess Dr Nisreen, being an accomplished medical scientist and woman leader is a testament to my statement.
On that day I asked men and boys as fathers, brothers and partners in this world to stand with me and make a pledge: Promise to support women and girls like Rebecca or Fatima or Nathalie, or Sofia or Maria or Laila, to become scientists, teachers, astronauts, writers, chemists or important researchers who will help to build better future societies.
As aforementioned, tradition can be very simple, so all men and boys who have taken the pledge, let’s remember to keep it and practice it, so equality can be achieved starting from home, to school, all the way to institutions and decision making.
I do not have siblings however, I kept my pledge to support my female schoolmates and women in science I kept practicing my family tradition by promoting and advocating for gender equality in science and every field through simple but effective activities. Through my activities, we found that creating awareness among fathers and brothers was not difficult, all it was just to remind them with the meaning of equality and the value of women as our first teachers. The world is made from girls and boys, and we cannot achieve any development without a real partnership between women and men that is based on equality we are partners not competitors.
By reaching the 2nd International Day of Women and Girls in Science, I found that February 11th started to change the world in its view on the involvement of women and girls in science and we will definitely be seeing more women and girls getting involved in different fields on science and technology. The most important question, however, is what we are looking for: Just involvement?
My generation is not seeing that girls are not able to do science. The only thing we see is whether education and science is available and accessible to all.
The theme of the second commemoration was about the role of media in achieving equality in science. What we see is that education is not made available for several of reasons such as the lack of media and corporate emphasis on the importance of education at an early age and we wonder how students can find their way to science and other important subjects if they have no access to the basic first steps of education.
Media agencies and corporations everywhere are just motivated by profit margins and if and when they make their contributions to education, such contributions are not done because they care for educational growth of boys and girls, to them education is just a marketing tool to reach corporate goals. I am going to give an example of media agencies and corporations in the United States of America and the United Kingdom. The majority of people in the United States watch the American football championship game on television also known as the Superbowl. During this event, companies spend months preparing for commercials broadcasted during break of the game. On average corporations spend at least $7 million USD to create and broadcast the commercials. In the United Kingdom companies spent an average of £6 billion on Christmas promotions and commercial advertisements. In another words, if these corporation along with governments and responsible institutions used better judgement and invested, and I repeat the word invested, in the educational growth of boys and girls everywhere, or in constructive and needed scientific research, the involvement of women and girls in science would become common place.
If we take half of those budgets and used them for scholarships, school programs, teacher and student training seminars, this problem would be a lot smaller than it is.
The older generations that created inequality between men and women in all aspects of life also created policies neglecting the role of science in sustainable development and the role women played through the past and present of scientific and developmental processes.
How can girls choose a scientific profession if they do not see role models? How will boys grow up practicing equality and appreciating women’s achievements if they do not see such things in the curriculum we study at schools. The policies made for media and by those writing our curricula are to a certain extent responsible for the inequality in science. It is all about how we popularize science, and how we present women in science. For example, if someone lights a fire to save someone’s life, there will always be two stories: the good one and bad one. The good one will be something along the lines of “Good Samaritan Lights Fire to Warm Sick Man,” while the bad one will sound like “Fire Recklessly Set in Dangerous Location.” The bad example is how women are viewed in scientific fields. This begs the questions: How many women experts appear on television? How many successful stories of women in science are still hidden from us?
Women have been applying science since the beginning of time, and there is no reason to believe otherwise.
I believe the future holds an amazing thing for women and girls in science and all we need is to work on true implementation, not just slogans and extended talks. We need to support, appreciate, and recognize women in sciences who dedicated their lives to prepare and educate generations to become the leaders of our world.
The results of the 2nd International Day of Women and Girls in Science was amazing. We started to see women and girls in science on TV and other media platforms, but most importantly we started to see recognition for women in science who were hidden figures. This day became a global trend however, the issue of inequality remains a problem that affects achieving the 17 sustainable development goals.
Gender inequality was created by previous generations and my generation does not need to inherit such acts and behaviors. While previous generations identified the problem and lived on with it for decades my generation is working to identify the factors causing the problem to solve it.
This is why I created a Global movement to achieve gender equality in all fields.
