Last month, someone asked me why there are lower proportions of girls in certain fields like STEM or sports. What if girls naturally just don’t like those careers? 

After weeks of reflecting on this, I can now confirm that we will never know. As of today, less than 30% of researchers in the fields of STEM are women, according to UNESCO. The Reuters Institute factsheet of 2022 shows that only around 20% of editors for the top 179 news outlets are women. Finally, despite the fact that 40% of sports players are women, they only have 4% of media coverage. Whether the “true balance” in each of these fields is 50%, 80% or 20%, we will never find out unless women are provided access to the opportunities they need to reach their full potential. This is what I believe to be the basis of gender equity.

Many of the articles in this issue focus on this theme. You can discover what it’s like to be a woman in sports through Agnese’s interview with Olympian Rebecca Wardell, or find out about the life of Dr Archana Sharma, leading female physicist at CERN. 

Recent events at our school itself have sparked conversations on the meaning of being a woman in a male-dominated profession: Divya’s article takes you through the Potenti’Elle in Science evening, organised by ISL in collaboration with external organisations to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11th). Among the guest speakers was Professor Maryna Viazovska, Fields Medal winner and professor at EPFL. Simply standing in a room with such accomplished women at my own school was an awe-inspiring experience. 

This issue is a sentence starter in the ongoing conversation about problems surrounding gender equity, motivating you to carry the messages of our journalists forward. With that in mind, I invite you to enjoy Issue 103!