Gender inequality has been a popular topic since men and women were often split into two with different stereotypes-women were expected to work and be housewives, dedicated to only their home life, whereas men could do pretty much anything else and had obvious privilege (it's quite obvious, too, which gender had enforced these stereotypes). These days those ancient stereotypes are falling apart and women have achieved more freedom and been able to prove their skills-especially in the controversial topic of science. However, not everything has been smoothed over. Injustice and sexism still heavily burdens women in science and everywhere else for that matter. But why would only gender, something you are born with, affect you so much? Females have so much potential and have already contributed so much to the science world, and it can even be scientifically proved that they are able to do just as well, maybe even better, than men. So if you are adamant that women can't contribute incredibly to science, think again.
Of course, no two people on this Earth are the exact same and that rule definitely applies to gender too. To categorise people that way would be an inefficient system-especially in science, where knowledge, passion and education are the most important traits. Not a lot of people recognise this simple fact, though. Because of cliches for men and women, girls with potential often don't have the chance to recieve the education they need as people think the education would be wasted on them, intellectual women can't get good jobs in science because people can think a man would do it better, and females with plenty of potential can be discouraged from the start because of the ideas that society forces on them. You may think these are just situations that I've come up with, but millions of females everywhere face these situations daily and it happens pretty much everywhere you can think of. Even if it's a small change, if we collectively try to end these generalisations then you could unknowingly turn around the life of a girl somewhere, or even the future history of science. And one change could turn into something even bigger. Never underestimate the potential one idea has-even if it fails, it could inspire someone else. Letting women contribute to science as freely as men do creates huge opportunities as they can use their voices. And having being able to use your voice, no matter how quiet it is, will always allow you to be heard.
Even with all these toxic stereotypes and cliches, women have still managed to make staggering contributions to science (imagine what it would be like if they could be at their full potential!). Men are often credited for the largest contributions to science, but they would have been nothing without the help of women. Rebecca Saunders and Muriel Wheldales' work contributed to the foundation of modern genetics, there are many women who worked for NASA that were the only ones the astronauts trusted, and Marie Curie's studies pioneered science and the study of radioactivity, including her discovery of two new elements (radium and polonium). But a majority of women who have been able to contribute to science have been overshadowed by men, who took all the glory. Lise Meitner calculated the energy released by splitting a certain type of atom, but a male colleague won a Nobel prize for the discovery and she was only credited 22 years later. James Watson and Francis Crick may be familiar names to you because of their discovery of how DNA was structured, but Rosalind Franklin was the one to be able to acquire the x-ray image for them. These are just a few of the hundreds of forgotten stories and there have been far worse events, but with the injustice that women suffer in science, those stories might never be heard unless something is done about it. It's such a trivial and meaningless problem with a simple solution, yet it's affected women so much over the course of history. If you don't do something about this and just stand and watch, you are part of the problem. This is why it's essential for you to do anything, no matter how small it is and perhaps these situations will become a thing of the past.
And if you still aren't convinced, even scientific reasoning sides with girls. A recent research found out that a nerve in the left side of the brain grows faster in girls than in boys. This nerve makes girls more intelligent in the earlier years of their lives (hence girls often being seen as more mature than boys). At 7, the average IQ for girls is 100.6 while it's is 99.4 for boys. At the age of 11, these results still remain true. Scientists from University of Missouri and the University of Glasgow studied the the educational level of 1.5 million students who were 15 from around the world using studies from 2000-2010. David Geary, a professor at The University of Missouri, says girls are surpassing boys in reading, mathematics and science literacy even in places where rights for women are the worst in the world. Girls outperform boys in almost much every country or region there is, and students in girls schools do significantly better in general academics and even have better mindsets than those who don't attend those types of schools. Modern scientific evidence simply shows more than ancient stereotypes ever will, and it's obvious that those facts can be proved in daily life. Even significantly less education compared to boys, societies with an obvious bias towards men, or the early stages of life doesn't stop women from showing that can be are able to achieve more than boys and are just as capable.
In the end, gender means simply nothing to what a person can achieve. Women are just as capable as men and it's obvious, no matter who wants to deny it and it's likely that they can even do more than the latter. Females in science not only are inspirations to other girls and women, but they can also pave the way for others and change the mindsets of future generations-no matter what gender they are. But if this change doesn't happen now, when will it happen? Are you just going to wait until someone else does it for you? If you can at least bring awareness to the topic, you're doing far more than nothing at all and that's enough.
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