AWE Journal – Girls in STEM

Kay Bishop
Guest Editor

This edition of Redress is a tribute to girls and women studying and working in the fields that make up STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). 2020 brought home to us the significance of these fields through both the management of COVID-19 and our understanding of the relationship between economies and societies. Over the past 12 months, we have witnessed a global fight with a deadly virus that has impacted people in every corner of the globe.

Yet, in Australia, we have been fortunate, so far. Our leaders have listened to our scientists and medical experts—the results are a testament to this wisdom— but we have become aware more than ever that our country needs a manufacturing component informed by research and technology and led by representatives of society’s diversity.

In this edition, we explore the significant work done by contemporary women in STEM fields and by brave women who, against the odds, made remarkable discoveries over past centuries. There is the acknowledgment of the achievements of women who made inroads into male-dominated fields despite the gender discrimination that denied them recognition and status.