What progress has been made on increasing women’s and girls’ access to and participation in science and technology (S&T)? This report is the outcome of the expert group meeting: Gender, science and technology (28 September – 1 October 2010), organised by the United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. These findings are intended to inform the 55th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women, at which the ‘Access and participation of women and girls in education, training, science and technology, including for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work’ will be considered.

This document reviews commitments made by Governments at the international level to promote S&T for girls and women. There is also a section presenting the meeting’s findings and recommendations, which are organised into the following themes: A) Women’s and girls’ participation in S&T education and employment, B) Women’s access to, development of, control over, and ability to benefit from technology, and C) Gender analysis and innovations in science, knowledge and technology design. In the first of these, stakeholders are urged to accelerate the development of statistical indicators and collection of sex-disaggregated data; carry out gender-sensitive monitoring and evaluation of all programmes; mainstream a gender perspective in S&T educational institutions and workplaces; and undertake a global study on the level of participation of women and girls in S&T education and employment.
All the papers presented at this expert meeting are accessible at:
http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/egm/gst_2010/index.html