International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrates the contribution and important roles of women and girls in STEM. What is your image of a scientist?The ‘Draw-a-Scientist’ project asked exactly that; the project asked school-aged kids to draw a scientist. The project ran for more than five decades, with more than 20,000 images of scientists collected during this time.In the 1960s and 1970s, more than 99% of the drawings were of male scientists. But not all scientists were male even then. We now know that there were many female scientists in those times too, although not many were acknowledged at the time.Founded by the United Nations, International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrates the contribution and important roles of women and girls in STEM. It recognizes the underrepresentation of women in these fields, and encourages females to join the exciting field of STEM.The gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields has decreased consistently since the 70s, especially at the undergraduate and graduate level. As of 2022, 48.5% of doctorate students in European Union countries were female, at master’s level, I was 58.6% (Eurostat, 2025). However, this proportion drops significantly after PhD, in what’s known as the ‘scissor-curve’; Only around 20% of the full professors in EU are women (Joyce et al.). At IMPS, we are striving to close the gender gap. More than 30% of the academic staff members are female, with a steep rise in proportion experienced in recent years. Nearly 60% of PhD and postdoc members are female at IMPS. While the discrepancy of gender ratio at PI level to PhD/postdoc level remains high, we are continuing to make positive changes to reduce this gap. We have held the Women in Plant Science lunch, organized by Dr. Beatriz Orosa-Puente, which created a place for female researchers to support each other and learn about navigating academia with training opportunities such as Narrative CV workshops.Recent ‘draw-a-scientist’ project results from 2018 showed that the percentage of male scientists drawn went down from 99.4% between 1966-1977 to 72% in between the years 1985-2016 (Miller et al.). In 2015, more than 50% of the girls drew a female scientist!As a scientific field, we have come a long way, and we will continue to improve IMPS, so it can be a place for any future plant scientist.Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science! Selected reading and referencesMason MA, Wolfinger NH, Goulden M (2013) Do Babies Matter? Gender and Family in the Ivory TowerJoyce et al. Closing the scissor-shaped curve: Strategies to promote gender equality in academiaEurostatMiller et al. The development of children's gender-science stereotypes: A meta-analysis of 5 decades of U.S. draw-A-Scientist studiesTen Years of International Women and Girls in Science Day: Progress and barriers to equal representation Drawing of a scientist by 9-year-old girl. Publication date 12 Feb, 2026
