In order to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls, and further achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls, the United Nations General Assembly declared 11 February as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in 2015.
This fact is especially noteworthy if we take into account data such as the following referring to both fiction and everyday life. In the first case, the article “Science on Television in the 21st Century”, by Anthony Dudo et al. (2010), has shown that only 1% of the occupations of the 2,868 prime-time characters analyzed are scientists; and of this total, 71% are men; Eva Flicker, in her study, acknowledges that only one fifth of the scientific characters she has analyzed in films are women. In the real world, David Beede et al. (2009), for example, have shown that only 24% of American women work in fields related to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. To cite one example, the American documentary program “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey”, dedicated to science and winner of prestigious awards, has been criticized for the virtual absence of women scientists.
That’s why today from Optiva Media we want to highlight about a selection of women scientists in films and series, because it is really important to have references (real or fictional) in the media to achieve gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls so let’s meet them!