Germany

Summary: From approximately 2003-2013, according to an article in Germany's der Spiegel magazine, only 1 in 10 first-year electrical engineering students has been a woman. The "MINT Zukunft schaffen" project (translated as "Achieving a STEM future") reports that in mathematics, technology, and science, 40% of university graduates with their first degrees in 2011 were women, which is almost double the percentage of women graduating with degrees in engineering (22.4%). The Federal Ministry of Education and Research reports that in 2000, women entering their university studies in STEM were at 21.1%, but this figure had risen to 25.8% in 2014.

While participation in STEM for women is on the rise in Germany, there is still an obvious lack of women in these fields. The statistics are comparable to Canada (where only 26.5% of women enrolled in post-secondary institutions in 2015-16 participated in math, computer, and information sciences). Anja Huth, spokeswoman for Germany's Federal Employment Agency, told der Spiegel that one problem is too many young women take an interest in what she calls "dead-end fields of study and professions." Jutta Dalhoff, director of the Centre of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) maintains that even with the best initiatives, it's hard to get gender clichés out of people's heads.

Initiatives: Germany has and has had many initiatives to combat the problem of low participation of women in STEM. Firstly, "Komm mach MINT," whose name is a wordplay on the phrase in German "to take part in something," features a multi-faceted approach, including video podcasts, a partnership between STEM employers and the government to create more opportunities for women, and a MINT-Slam - similar to a poetry slam - in which women in STEM tell their stories. The government also organizes the "MINT-Pakt und Girls' Day" ("STEM Pact and Girls' Day"), in which the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has made a pact to involve more women and girls in STEM fields and activities. They have also designated a day (the "Girls' Day" part of the title) where organizations in the STEM fields can help girls see where they might fit in once they finish their post-secondary studies. Because it is imperative to get girls interested in STEM at early ages, the German government has also created initiatives to assist early childhood educators, such as "Kleine Forscher" ("Little Scientists"). In a project that is possibly the first of its kind, the city of Rostock in northern Germany began a webseries called "Sturm des Wissens" ("Storm of Knowledge"), which follows the story of Nele Wagner, a teenager who begins to study physics. The web soap opera was created with the goal of showing STEM fields in a positive light so that more girls will consider studying them in their school careers, and the title is a play on that of a popular soap opera in Germany.

Japan

Summary: As a share of total researchers, women made up 14.7% in 2014, according to this fact sheet by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). The Japan Inter-Society Liaison Committee for Promoting Equal Participation of Men and Women in Science and Engineering (EPMEWSE) also surveyed 16,314 researchers in STEM fields in 2013. Of that total number, 4,356 were women. And in Elsevier's "Gender in the Global Research Landscape" report, it is shown that the proportion and number of researchers by gender (among named and gendered author profiles) was 20% for women in Japan in 2011-2015 (note: the report covers women's participation in 27 subject areas and is not reporting exclusively on STEM fields). Many female researchers are leaving Japan for better opportunities in other countries, according to Miyoko O. Watanabe, Deputy Executive Officer of the Office for Diversity and Inclusion at the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST). She says, “In Japan, a declining birth rate and growing elderly population are key issues, along with the decreasing labour work force.” Watanabe points out that productivity is higher for women than men in Japan because many decision makers are men, so “women must write more papers than men to succeed and advance in their research careers.” Workers who are women must be very efficient because they have less time to accomplish the same tasks as men, as they work fewer hours to care for children. “If more women join the scientific workforce and take diverse positions,” says Watanabe, “I believe that Japanese productivity would be higher.”

Initiatives: According to the website for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan, at the United Nation’s last General Assembly, Japanese Prime Minister Abe emphasized Japan’s intention to enhance cooperation with the international community and its assistance to developing countries for women’s empowerment and gender equality, as part of its effort to address global agenda. Japan has a target for women to occupy 30% of leadership positions by 2030. Additionally, Tohoku University was the first in Japan to establish a Committee of Gender Equality, a campus-wide organization, followed by the adoption of the Tohoku University Declaration on Promoting Gender Equality. The university's Center for Gender Equality Promotion (TUMUG) operates the Morinomiyako Project for Empowering Women in Research under the MEXT (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) Science and Technology Human Resource Development Support Program. Other universities are also spearheading programs and projects to lead the cause of gender equality in STEM. Ochanomizu University has developed the COSMOS set of indicators for Japanese institutions to evaluate their education and research environment. Nagoya University is also one of the UN's HeforSHe university impact champions and has committed to increase representation of women in university leadership positions by 20% by 2020.

Africa

Summary: Africa produces less than 1% of research output in the whole world, and Dr. Rose Mutiso (co-founder and CEO of Mawazo Institute, a nonprofit research initiative based in Nairobi, Kenya that supports the next generation of woman thought leaders and scholars in Africa) states that economic and socio-political challenges of Africa make it a "weak environment for both women and men but even more so for women." She also maintains there is a great need for more data to see where the gaps are between women and men in STEM. Looking at university data, a study of universities in Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania found that only 20-35% of students in STEM were women.

Initiatives: For Africa as a whole, UNESCO has committed to promoting women in science by hosting workshops and conferences in their Nairobi office for university women decision makers and mid-career women scientists and engineers. The Africa-EU Partnership has established a joint strategy between the European Union and the African continent to promote common interests, including accelerating socio-economic transformation "based on harnessing science, technology and innovation (STI) for sustainable development." Their initiatives, however, do not focus solely on women in STEM, but rather on eradicating extreme poverty and creating more access to education in general, which are both essential for supporting a more robust STEM culture. In 2013, the Africa Women in Science and Technology (AWiST) organization was launched in Kenya to provide STEM opportunities for woman students and professionals, enabling girls and women to build connections in the STEM fields through discussions, field-work, and mentoring. The program was implemented by STEM Africa, and has reached 120 "ladies in STEM," 750 school girls, and over 100 students in university (date range is not given). The WAAW (Working to Advance Science and Technology Education for African Women) Foundation also engages in STEM outreach and mentoring in 18 chapters in 11 African countries. The organization offers bootcamps, STEM and computer science camps, scholarships, coding clubs, outreach, mentoring, and teacher training.