Every 11th of February the world hosts the International Day of women and Girls in Science. This milestone is a celebration but, moreover, it is a reminder of the need to achieve equality in STEM in order to not miss any possible talent. “A significant gender gap has persisted throughout the years at all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines all over the world. Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields”, says the UN.
The DATAMITE consortium is well aware of the reality of inequality in the STEM sector and fully supports the integration of gender and diversity analysis in research activities to achieve the most complete results that include all the parts that make up the reality of society. All activities conducted in DATAMITE take the measures necessary to ensure all members of the society benefit equally from the project outputs.
To learn more about women in STEM and how girls can be encouraged to choose this career path, we talk to Daniela Greven, member of DATAMITE on behalf of FIR an der RWTH Aachen, and leader of the Work Package 4.
When and why did you decide to dedicate yourself professionally to science or tech?
I became interested in natural sciences at an early age and quickly found my strengths there as well. When I was about 14 years old, I interned at an engineering office in my hometown. From then on I knew that I wanted to be an engineer!
As a woman, do you think it is important to have female references when choosing the professional path?
My role models are not only purely female. However, it definitely gives me a boost in this very male-dominated domain to see how other women are following or have already followed a similar path to mine. It is inspiring what some women have already achieved and built up in their careers. Every day each one of us goes new ways and talking about it encourages one another again and again to try something new, outside the traditional way.
How do you expect working at DATAMITE impacts your career?
Within DATAMITE, I will be able to dive deeper into the area of data exchange and technical platform building and look at the interconnection and interdependency in relation to the business model than ever before. This will allow me to better understand and support the cross-sections working on technical solution building in the future. In addition, working in our very interdisciplinary team from all over Europe offers the chance to gain a higher understanding of cultural differences and uniqueness, which will become a core asset for the ever closer European collaboration.
What advice would you advise to any little girl who is thinking of studying something related to science or tech?
Don’t let anyone tell you which path to take. Learn to value your interests and individual strengths. Bringing in a new, female perspective often opens the door to a completely new range of opportunity. You can do anything YOU want.
In DATAMITE we celebrate and value the work of all the women who have decided to dedicate their path to STEM. We also want to encourage all the little girls who want to become scientists or engineers in the future.
If you want to always stay updated about our project, subscribe to our newsletter and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn!