To celebrate International day for women and girls in science, Pratikshya Pandey (CEO, Smart Cheli) and  Princi Koirala (Co-Founder, Moonlit Solutions), mentors to girls and women in this field, shares insights on universal hurdles girls face in STEM and their provide recommendations.

At present (2020), less than 30 per cent of researchers worldwide are women. According to UNESCO data (2014 – 2016), only around 30 per cent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female students’ enrolment is particularly low in ICT (3 per cent), natural science, mathematics and statistics (5 per cent) and in engineering, manufacturing and construction (8 per cent).

Long-standing biases and gender stereotypes are steering girls and women away from science related fields. However, there are individuals and mentors like Princi Koirala and Pratikshya Pandey who are working towards changing this. Excerpts from their interview and its link can be found below;

“Women face challenges from a very young age in STEM field because we are told we do not belong to this field, this is not just a problem in Nepal, it is a global issue”. (Pratiksha Pandey, CEO, Smart Cheli)

Please access here to watch the full video.

“The challenges that I have experienced and observed pursuing a career in this field is power of majority which brings risk of women’s voices being unheard of and uncouncious biases that happen in the workplace” (Princi Koirala (Co-Founder, Moonlit Solutions)

Please access here to watch the full video.