More women researchers needed ‘to deliver food security’

Reported on 17th October by Mark Kinver on the BBC News website – ‘policy and business leaders have used a major food conference to highlight the need for more women in the global agriculture sector’

…….. “It is a global problem so we have to change the global culture surrounding science and who can be a scientist.  A report produced by the Campaign for Science and Engineering (Case) that examined diversity in UK Stem said that just 9% of those involved in non-medical Stem posts were women. However, it also highlighted that the problems facing the science sector in the UK went beyond gender equality. The authors reported that there was an annual shortfall of 40,000 skilled Stem workers. Dr Kamau-Rutenberg told the BBC the shortfall illustrated why it was critical to attract more young women to pursue careers in the Stem sector. We need to expand the pool of talent and increase the number of scientists. Investing in women scientists is a really good way to solve the problem of not enough scientists being available to do the work.”

Women account for only a small proportion of skilled scientists worldwide

Women account for only a small proportion of skilled scientists worldwide