Despite great strides in narrowing the gender gap in education, inequities endure, especially in the sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), where women remain woefully under-represented. Only 28% of the world's researchers are women.
What is at stake here, first, is the ability of girls and women to follow their dreams. In too many cases, a girl who aspires to become an engineer, an astronaut or a computer programmer faces hurdles that a boy simply does not. The inescapable conclusion is that society and education systems are letting that girl down. This means also that we fail to benefit from the contribution that many bright girls and women could bring to the quest of overcoming environmental degradation, poverty and disease. In this new age of limits, when the planet is under pressure, the world simply cannot afford to do without 50% of its creativity.
To respond, we must first understand the challenges we face. These are explored in Unesco's new global study, "Cracking the Code: Girls' and Women's Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)", which will be launched tomorrow at an international symposium in Bangkok.
The report underlines the hard barriers that exist to girls' education on the whole. As a teenager, for example, Malala Yousafzai brought international attention to the struggles faced by girls in many parts of the world where education is divided along gender lines.
There are also more pernicious forces affecting girls and young women's achievement in STEM fields in particular. The tired old stereotype that "girls aren't good at maths" continues to shape behaviour and set barriers.
All this means that girls and young women are under-represented in STEM tracks in school. The study shows that they make up just 35% of the student body in those subjects globally. As academic careers progress, girls and women are disproportionately likely to change study tracks away from STEM subjects, deterred by gender bias in curricula and teachers who fail to support female students, as well as by the persistence of stereotypes that they internalise, making them doubt their own abilities.
I see inspiring examples across the world that show what can be done.
Running up to tomorrow's international symposium, we have highlighted women on social media who have reached the pinnacles of their professions based on STEM fundamentals. We have shared the stories of US astronaut Mae Jemison, Ugandan engineer Godliver Businge and the late Fields Medal-winning Iranian mathematician Maryam Mirzakhani. Their stories are about brilliant individual achievement, irrespective of gender. Given the scale of discrimination in these fields, their stories set models to help every girl dream big.
The international community has promised to create a world where such dreams come true. This is the spirit of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, specifically its goals to promote quality inclusive education and advance gender equality by 2030. This is why supporting girls in STEM education is so important. This is about respecting individual human rights and about the sustainable development of entire societies.
Girls must receive the same encouragement and exposure to STEM subjects at an early age as boys. Curricula should be tailored to suit the learning needs of both boys and girls and eliminate gender biases. Most importantly, girls must be taught that they can succeed in these fields just as well as boys. By convening the world's leading thinkers and practitioners at tomorrow's symposium, Unesco is committed to working with all governments to take forward these goals.
Every girl must feel free to dream of winning a Fields Medal or orbiting the planet in a space shuttle -- and we must give them every opportunity to do so.
Irina Bokova is director-general of Unesco.
