The gender and STEM network aims at gaining more insights into the various connected aspects of career choices and professional careers of girls/women (and boys/men) in the direction of STEM as well as detecting new approaches to improve and address the underrepresentation of girls/women in STEM.

The conferences and special issues are an initiative of the “Network Gender & STEM: Educational and occupational pathways and participation”. The Network conferences have marked the beginning of a more coherent way of exchanging information, as collectively we work to find new ways to implement research findings in both policy and practice.

Conferences

2024 | Heidelberg, Germany

The 2024 Conference will be on July 18th - 20th, 2024 at the Universität Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany. Conference host team: Birgit Spinath, Katharina Reschke and Zoe Sander.

The 7th biennial conference of the international Network Gender & STEM will be held in beautiful Heidelberg, Germany. The call for proposals is now open! Closing Sept. 30, 2023. More information? Click here!

All conferences

Special issues

Selected papers from each conference are published in themed Special Issues of the International Journal of Gender, Science and Technology.

Gendered pathways towards (and away from) STEM fields

2012 conference (Amsterdam) Host VHTO
Gendered pathways towards (and away from) STEM fields
Vol. 5, No. 3 (2013)
Guest Editors: Helen M. G. Watt, Noortje Jansen, & Gertje Joukes

Gender and STEM: what schools, families, and workplaces can do?

2014 conference (Berlin) Hosts Rebecca Lazarides & Angela Ittel
Gender and STEM: what schools, families, and workplaces can do?
Part 1: Vol. 7, No. 2 (2015) Part 2: Vol. 8, No. 1 (2016); Guest Editors: Rebecca Lazarides & Angela Ittel

Re-imagining who does STEM

2018 conference (Oregon)
Host Jenefer Husman
Re-imagining who does STEM
Part 1: Vol. 11, No. 3 (2019)
Part 2: Vol. 12, No. 1 (2020)
Guest Editors: Lara Perez-Felkner & Sylvia Beyer

Patron and initiators

The patron of the Network Gender & STEM is professor Jacquelynne Eccles. Initiators of the network are professor Helen Watt and VHTO.

In 2007, Professor Helen Watt from The University of Sydney was invited as a keynote speaker at a VHTO conference. VHTO, the Dutch Expert Centre on Genderdiversity in STEM makes an effort in many different ways to increase the involvement of women and girls in science and technology in The Netherlands. Our discussions centred about the very many research studies and findings concerning gender and STEM participation, but also that different studies tend to focus on one or few aspects. We agreed it would have surplus value if relevant research results of the last few years could be interrelated, in order to be able to gain a more coherent view concerning gender and STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) from childhood to labour market. With this in mind, together we have formed our Network on this subject with members who undertake related research.

 

Members

The network has started open an ‘only for members’ Facebook group where network members can exchange relevant research results and discuss them among each other. In this way we hope the exchange of information will become more ‘dynamic’ and that it will open discussion on how research results could be integrated in new approaches to improve the underrepresentation of girls/women in STEM. You can find members of the Gender & STEM Network in all corners of the world!

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Do you want to join our network?

For more information about the Network Gender & STEM, feel free to contact Helen Watt or Rebecca Lazarides(co-Convenors).