Did you know that February 11th is the "International Day of Women and Girls in Science"?

Did you know that February 11th is the "International Day of Women and Girls in Science"?

A day instituted by the United Nations to encourage more women and girls to try their hand at science, and one step towards reaching the UN's global goals for sustainable development.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres believes that gender stereotypes often work as obstacles. The fact that women make up only 30% of all scientific and technological researchers speaks for itself. By working with gender equality, we can ensure access to the scientific platforms for all and even out other inequalities, such as the difference in wages between women and men. A greater diversity contributes positively to innovation, according to Secretary-General António Guterres, and here at Farsight we can only agree! Therefore we want to help to break some myths about girls and computer science jobs: 

1."' Tech geeks' are antisocial lone wolves!"

A common prejudice is that those who work with data and technology prefer to stay in their room, hang out with their computers and avoid other people. Nor are they willing to cooperate and contribute to teamwork.

On the contrary, we say, many of the "tech geeks" are just the opposite! When it comes to fixing problems and finding new working solutions, you greatly benefit from your colleagues and from teamwork, something that the tech industry is fully aware of.

No man - or woman - is an island!

2. "The math is utterly and hopelessly difficult!"

In society, girls have unfortunately been "discouraged" from engaging in mathematics as an academic interest, and it sadly still affects women immensely today. But we know that women and men are equally good at solving super-advanced math problems; besides, it's not necessarily a must to be a math genius to work with computer science. So although mathematics is definitely still involved, the real focus is actually on logical thinking and problem-solving.

3. "Computer science is not 'female'!"

Women who work with computers are assumed to be extremely nerdy or somehow less feminine due to the male-dominated industry, contributing to young girls not feeling that there is a place for them in technology.

But our work occupation does not define who we are as a person. You can be a punk-loving programmer, a shark-crazy systems scientist or a strawberry-munching software developer - we are all different.

Let's embrace that!