Space as a tool to empower women and implement the 2030 Agendas
- Paper number
IAC-16,D4,2,5,x35175
- Coauthor
Ms. Annalisa Donati, United Nations/OOSA, Austria
- Year
2016
- Abstract
Annalisa Donati annalisadonati@yahoo.it The process started with the establishment of the Millennium Development Goals, recognized as humanity’s common objectives, namely n.3 – “to promote gender equality and empower women” – brought significant results in a large number of cross-cutting right-based issues. Although in the last decade the gap in accessing quality primary school education has almost been achieved, there are still various countries where girl’s enrolment in basic education lay on unsatisfactory levels. Gender disparities grow in secondary and tertiary education in most developing countries. The number of women entering the workforce is constantly enlarging, however they are typically employed at the informal end of the labour market with inadequate incomes and insecure conditions. These trends are even more discouraging when it comes to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields, where the number of women decreases continuously from universities to laboratories, teaching, policy and decision-making. Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) have the power to disrupt and shift trajectories as it increasingly influences all aspects of life. The sector offers economic opportunity in itself and by the application of STI solutions within other productive sectors, including health, energy, environment, natural resources management and infrastructure development. The adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Development recognizing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as its core pillar together with the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the results of COP 21, highlight the call for gender equality throughout STI. The standalone SDG n. 5 endorses this reality by including the target 5b stressing the global community to “enhance the use of enabling technology to promote the empowerment of women”. In order to achieve this goal the efforts of the international community should be driven toward the decline of the existing disconnection between women’s daily interfacing with STI and their formal ability to seek their knowledge, perspectives and leadership fairly valued. Such a mismatch originates in a yet inadequate access to education and technology, meagre investments, cultural belief, stereotype and unsupportive work environments often causing girls self-exclusion from STEM, considered as male domains. The Space sector is intrinsically characterized by a tremendous inspirational power for young generations. In addition, the number of women embracing the space field as their career path is steadily increasing. This paper aims at investigating the contribution of the Space sector in leveraging the process toward the eradication of gender inequalities.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)