On the 30th July, Ain Shams, Cardiff, and Cairo University took a step together to reduce gender disparity in STEM through a training session held at the Faculty of Engineering, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. This workshop was planned as part of the activities included in the project: ‘Reducing Gender Disparity in Higher Education in Science and Engineering from High School to Higher Education’. This project is funded by the British Council through the call: Gender Equality Partnerships launched in 2024.

This training session began with an introduction to notable female scientists throughout history [1,2,3], many of whom were unknown to the participants. This was followed by a reflection on their achievements and the challenges they faced, with Dr (PhD) Marie Curie serving as a benchmark. The section on attracting women to STEM addressed the problems and proposed actions [4] to counteract them, including the implementation of the Hjalli educational model [5,6,7], designed in Iceland to break gender stereotypes from infancy. The section on recruitment outlined a series of actions to attract women to STEM from high school, when their interest in STEM typically begins to decline [4,11]. The section on enrolling women in STEM presented the individual obstacles that women need to overcome to enrol in a STEM program and how institutions can support women to surpass those obstacles [8,9].  A list of associations of women in STEM [8,9] was presented to the audience before starting with the section on retention. This section outlined the past and current challenges [10] in retaining women in STEM fields and the actions institutions should take to address these issues [8,10,11].

This training session concluded with the presentation of the Irene Curie Fellowship Programme, established in 2020 by the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) in the Netherlands, which prioritises women in its hiring policy. This programme promotes advanced, talented female academics by enabling them to achieve success more quickly and overcome barriers in STEM [12] by providing them with funding of 100,000 Euros to set up their research after coming to TU/e. This programme will run for another 5 years [13]. The training eventually counted with the attendance of 45 participants from Ain Shams and Cairo Universities and other research institutes in Cairo. Thanks to them for their attendance, participation, interest and collaborations and to the British Council for supporting these actions to reduce gender disparity in STEM in countries in the global north and global south.

The record of the entire session is available to be watched at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJQ6pJTZWOI&t=1819s

References

[1] Lamara, D. (2025). 7 Inspiring Women in Science You Should Know. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1YXZw2lmHc
[2] Greendland, R. (2019). 5 Famous Female Scientists: Newsweek. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxhW4DC-ZZs
[3] IFLScience. (2017). Women in science who changed the world. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W53Ks824GTA
[4] EPI. (2018). How to Engage More Girls in STEM. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqSKBRCVkPM
[5] Hjallastefnan. (2025). The Hjalli Model. Retrieved from https://www.hjallimodel.com/
[6] Hjallastefnan. (2025). The Hjalli Policy. Retrieved from https://hjallastefnan.is/#
[7] Hjallastefnan. (2025). The Three Pillars.
[8] Fox, M. F., Sonnert, G., & Nikiforova, I. (2011). Programs for Undergraduate Women in Science and Engineering:Issues, Problems, and Solutions. Gender & Society, 25(5), 589-615. doi:10.1177/0891243211416809
[9] AlKaabi, F. (2022). What it takes to be a Woman in STEM: TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waD95VUbWC0
[10] Cabana, N. (2022). Retaining Women in STEM. TEDxMashpeeWomen: TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHVfQTH6EcU
[11] Skozcelas, B. (2017). Closing the Gender Gap in STEM. TEDxLSSC: TEDx Talks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVVDasLOKDk
[12] Tu/e. (2025). Irène Curie Program. Retrieved from https://www.tue.nl/en/working-at-tue/scientific-staff/irene-curie-program
[13] Tu/e. (2025). Five years of the Irène Curie Fellowship – empowering women in science at TU/e. Eindhoven, The Netherlands: Eindhoven University of Technology. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDK_xWguag0&t=113s