Celebrating Women in STEM

Ada Lovelace Day celebrates women in STEM careers, but also raises awareness of the challenges that women have faced in science, as well as the importance of female role models in STEM.

Dr Diyi Yang, Assistant Professor of computer science at Stanford University, talks to Nature Computational Science about understanding human communication in a social context, building natural language processing systems that are human-centered, and the challenges that female researchers face in the field.

Dr Angela K. Wilson, director of the Michigan State University Center for Quantum Computing, Science and Engineering and John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor at Michigan State University, talks to Nature Computational Science about protein-based carbon-capture, the use of machine learning in computational chemistry, and making the research field more equitable for female researchers.

Dr Barbara Liskov — a mostly retired Institute Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a pioneer in object-oriented programming and distributed systems and the winner of the 2008 ACM A. M. Turing Award, which is the highest distinction in computer science — talks to Nature Computational Science about her work on data abstractions, her career trajectory and recognizing the contributions of women in computer science.

Ada Lovelace was a visionary who first recognized the potential of computer programming. Almost two centuries on, six women in computer science and technology reflect on their experiences in the field.

“Girls don’t like physics” is a common refrain, but this perception has not always existed, nor does it occur everywhere in the world today. We call on our readers to fight such unfounded stereotypes.

March is Women’s History Month. This issue of Nature Immunology celebrates the contributions of women in immunology by presenting specially commissioned content from women across the globe.

An external analysis of 15 years of stories finds men quoted more than twice as often as women.

Dr Laura Gagliardi, professor at the University of Chicago and director of the Chicago Center for Theoretical Chemistry, shares with Nature Computational Science her research trajectory and projects, insights into the synergy between experimental and computational chemistry, and her advice for women and young scientists.

Dr Núria López-Bigas, ICREA Research Professor and group leader in biomedical genomics at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine, discusses with Nature Computational Science about her research on cancer genomics.

Analysis of which researchers publish, get credit, move around, get funding, collaborate and receive citations shows how deeply ingrained the bias against women is.

Subtle forms of misogyny attack female leadership and coerce women to conform to conventional gender norms. It’s time to call out these behaviours, say Alison Bentley and Rachael Garrett.

The vast gender gap in Japanese science has leading women researchers calling for change.

The difference between the number of men and women listed as authors on scientific papers and inventors on patents is at least partly attributable to unacknowledged contributions by women scientists.

Despite improvements, female scientists continue to face discrimination, unequal pay and funding disparities.

Female scientists are underrepresented in top research jobs despite performing just as well as their male colleagues, a study from Italy and Norway shows.

Although there is a keen awareness of the gender gap in the physical sciences, a healthy female representation has yet to be achieved. This article offers some possible explanations, in addition to strategies to more rapidly achieve gender balance in the physical sciences.

Women are underrepresented in the science and engineering fields. Difficulties in balancing family life and work have a big role in women's opting out of scientific career paths. Institutions and funding agencies need to work harder to reverse this disparity.