Celebrating diverse excellence in science: a message for the international day for women and girls in science

The International Day for Women and Girls in Science offers a good occasion to share our message for girls and young women who are considering entering—or choosing to stay in—science.

Our message is grounded in experience. We would like to stress to girls and young women who wish to pursue an academic or research career, the importance of staying strong in respecting yourself. Our experience shows that such a grounded attitude also enables you to stand up when needed!

We encourage you to believe in your own capacities and not to let yourself be discouraged by undermining voices. If you keep belief in yourself and curiosity about the capacities of others – even when you encounter storms – we are sure this will help you navigate various worlds. In the end, none of us are perfect and over time also subjected to many diverse influences.

Our working environment has proven to be very important to thrive, take successful initiatives and spread our wings to our full potential. We would like to encourage young women and girls to not shy away. We want to emphasize how inspiring it is to link various worlds and to take challenges in new and diverse contexts.

We therefore call upon all colleagues to move beyond a one-dimensional picture of scientists as being excellent only through specialization in single cutting-edge topic or discipline, often surrounded by a school of upcoming researchers. Considering today’s world-wide challenges which cross disciplinary borders and societal divides, we need more diverse scientists, including those who can conceptualize, communicate and bridge diverse worlds. And yes, we see a lot of women operating and thriving that way!

Let us celebrate such diversity of excellence in science as a way to support and attract more young women besides men, and to pave the way for their inclusion and support in academia and research, despite setbacks in funding and supportive policies.

It can be hard to read undermining emails or comments and addressing them requires extra time and energy that we would like to spend on research or inspiring encounters. Though, let us face these challenges with a positive spirit, while also acknowledging bottom lines we collectively can address instead of ignoring.

We wish for more young women to enter and stay in academia and research, strengthening such diversity with the support of all though measures, perspectives and working routines that reduce negative encounters.

In HOLiFOOD we have agreed to support one another irrespective of gender. Let us cherish this commitment, especially on this day by supporting this call to diversify our understanding of what constitutes an excellent scientist and treating all accordingly.

HOLiFOOD consortium members,

Dr. Novieta Sari, UNEW

Dr. Margreet van der Burg, WU