{"id":87156,"date":"2026-02-11T06:57:51","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T01:27:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=87156"},"modified":"2026-02-10T17:06:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T11:36:52","slug":"international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science\/","title":{"rendered":"International Day of Women and Girls in Science, Theme, Significance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>The International Day of Women and Girls in Science is observed every year on 11 February.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It was declared by the<\/span><b> United Nations General Assembly in 2015<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The day highlights the important role of women and girls in science, technology, engineering and mathematics <\/span><b>(STEM).<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It aims to promote <\/span><b>gender equality in scientific education and careers.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The observance also draws attention to the challenges faced by women in science. Encouraging women\u2019s participation in science is essential to solve global problems like <\/span><b>climate change, health and sustainable development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. The day supports the <\/span><b>goals of inclusive growth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and the <\/span><b>UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).<\/b><\/p>\n<h2><b>International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2026 Theme<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The theme of International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2026 is <\/span><b>\u201cSynergizing AI, Social Science, STEM and Finance: Building Inclusive Futures for Women and Girls.\u201d<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> The theme highlights the need to combine four key areas-<\/span><b><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/artificial-intelligence\/\" target=\"_blank\">Artificial Intelligence<\/a> (AI), Social Science, STEM and Finance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to reduce gender inequality and promote inclusive development.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>AI &amp; STEM empower women<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in tech, healthcare and climate studies, ensuring equal benefits and gender balance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Social science designs fair policies<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to reach marginalised women and girls.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Finance supports women-led start-ups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and STEM participation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Together, these four areas<\/span><b> close skill gaps<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and promote inclusive and sustainable development.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2026 Significance<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Equality in science is vital for human progress, but women remain <\/span><b>under-represented in STEM<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> due to stereotypes, lack of funding and discrimination.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Globally, women form only <\/span><b>one-third of researchers; in technology, they make up just 26% in data and AI and 12% in cloud computing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Low participation of women leads to biased technologies and weakens solutions to global challenges like climate change and public health.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>UN promotes women in STEM<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through scholarships, internships and mentorship programmes to unlock full human potential.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>India\u2019s Status<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women\u2019s participation in scientific research in India has increased over time. According to the Department of Science and Technology<\/span><b> (DST)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, women formed <\/span><b>28% of participants in R&amp;D projects in 2018\u201319, up from 13% in 2000\u201301.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The number of women primary investigators in R&amp;D rose more than <\/span><b>four times<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, from <\/span><b>232 (2000-01) to 941 (2016-17)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The share of female researchers increased from 13.9% in 2015 to 18.7% in 2018, showing gradual improvement.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women have played key roles in India\u2019s space programmes. In <\/span><b>Mangalyaan (2013)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, women scientists like<\/span><b> Ritu Karidhal, Nandini Harinath and Anuradha TK<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> contributed significantly.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Chandrayaan-2<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was led by women scientists <\/span><b>Vanitha Muthayya (Project Director)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and <\/span><b>Ritu Karidhal (Mission Director)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/upsc-exam\/chandrayaan-3\/\" target=\"_blank\"><b>Chandrayaan-3<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was also led by women, with <\/span><b>Ritu Karidhal Shrivastava <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">as Mission Director and <\/span><b>Kalpana Kalahasti<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> as Deputy Project Director.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>CSIR Survey (2022)<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> showed that women remain under-represented in leadership roles, with many labs having no female chief scientists.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Women made up only about <\/span><b>18% of scientists and 15% of technical staff in CSIR labs<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, highlighting the need for greater gender balance in STEM.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>International Day of Women and Girls in Science is observed on 11 February to promote gender equality in STEM, highlight challenges, and support inclusive development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":87151,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[786],"tags":[5302],"class_list":{"0":"post-87156","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-general-studies","8":"tag-international-day-of-women-and-girls-in-science","9":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87156"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87160,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87156\/revisions\/87160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}