Science and gender equality are both vital for sustainable development. Yet women and girls continued to be excluded from participating fully in science: less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women.
Despite the remarkable gains that women have made in education and the workforce over the past decades, progress has been uneven.

According to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), only 28% of the world’s researchers are women. Women are still underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), both at graduate and research levels. Even in those scientific fields where women are present, they are underrepresented in policy-making and programming.
The International Day of Women and Girls in Science, celebrated each year on 11 February, was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. This Day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology communities and that their participation should be strengthened.
We invite people to join and help us to show women and girls that they, too, can fully participate in science, by contributing to our social media campaign: #ChooseScience.
In order to participate, please post on your social media accounts:
- A short video or a photo of yourself at work, explaining why you chose science.
- Use the hashtag #ChooseScience
- Tag our accounts so that we can share and re-tweet:
Facebook: EN: @unesco / RU: @unesata
Twitter: EN: @UNESCO / RU: @UNESCO_russian
Instagram: EN: @unesco / RU: @unescorussian
VK (Russian): ЮНЕСКО

If you wish to participate but do not have access to social media accounts, please send your images to the following address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Based on en.unesco.kz