The 11th February 2025 marks the 30th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, as well as the 10th anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action is considered a significant milestone in the advancement of women’s rights, as it outlines the strategic, institutional and financial objectives to achieving female emancipation in the participating 189 countries. Although the declaration is not legally binding, the UN Commission of the Status of Women annually assess the declaration’s progression and the obstacles to its success.
The declaration outlines key areas of concern when considering the evolution of women’s rights, including education, health, poverty and violence against women.
In terms of education, one of the industries with the biggest gender disparity is STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics). While undeniable progress has been made for women in STEM, they are still under-represented in these fields. In 2023, it was reported that women make up only 29% of the STEM workforce in the UK. The Institution of Engineering and Technology conducted a survey to investigate the reasons for this and found that 45% of women were not encouraged to think about STEM as a career, while 32% were put off by how male-dominated the industries are.
Women have been responsible for major breakthroughs in the STEM world, but have frequently been uncredited or had their work stolen by their male peers. Famous examples include:
- Alice Ball, who worked on a treatment for leprosy which another chemist took credit for.
- Chein-Shiung Wu, whose work to disprove the law of conservation of parity in which her male colleagues won the 1957 Nobel Prize for was uncredited.
- Rosalind Franklin, whose X-ray crystallography data was used without her consent by James Watson and Francies Crick who went on to receive the Nobel Prize.
The chronic underappreciation of women in STEM is so prolific that the term the “Matilda effect” was created, which describes the bias against women’s achievements in science.
Diversity, equal opportunities and celebrating accomplishments are the key to a motivated and successful workforce.
At Excool, we want to shine a light on our female colleagues who are making a difference in the data center cooling industry every single day.
