Promoting gender equality in science with fun and games An EU-funded project is proposing a new and interesting approach to tackling gender stereotypes in research and innovation: a board game whose aim is to win the Nobel Prize. Society © MJgraphics, Shutterstock Gender equality is a fundamental human right. It’s also a necessary condition for a peaceful and prosperous world. However, as European Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth Mariya Gabriel states in an interview posted on the ‘Science|Business’ website, “while gender equality is important in and of itself, … having more women in science serves another, maybe even greater purpose: better science.” Not enough women in science Nevertheless, despite efforts to eliminate gender disparities in research and innovation, women continue to be under-represented in this field. Commissioner Gabriel provides compelling evidence to that effect: “All disciplines considered, only a third of researchers in the EU are women and only 15 % in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Even more striking, women represent less than 10 % of patent holders, only 8 % of European startups are founded by all-women teams and only 25 % are founded by a team that includes at least one woman.” The EU-funded project GEARING ROLES is now offering a board game called ‘Nobel Run’. It’s an interesting and innovative approach to tackling the issue of gender stereotypes in science. In this deck-building board game, players must manage a research team, hire predoctoral, postdoctoral and senior researchers, publish articles and get funding through international projects. Game highlights leading female figures The aim of the game, as its name suggests, is to win the Nobel Prize. To manage this feat, players will be able to receive help from the leading female scientists and inventors depicted on the cards. Several examples are Marie Curie (1867-1934), the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968) who contributed to the discoveries of the element protactinium and nuclear fission, and Jocelyn Bell Burnell (1943-), an Irish astrophysicist who discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. Also included are Russian cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova (1937-), the first woman in space, American mathematician Katherine Johnson (1918-2020), one of the first African-American women to work as a NASA scientist, Chinese-American experimental physicist Chien-Shiung Wu (1912-1997), known for her significant contributions to nuclear physics, as well as Hedy Lamarr, Austrian-born actress, inventor and film producer whose invention paved the way for wifi and Bluetooth technology. The game includes several other cards, including those that show the impact of caring or impostor syndrome on scientific careers. Yet another card displays the map of Europe and the partner countries that are implementing gender equality plans as part of the project. GEARING ROLES (Gender Equality Actions in Research Institutions to traNsform Gender ROLES) is a multidisciplinary consortium of 10 European academic and non-academic partners. In order to challenge and transform gender roles that perpetuate inequality, the project is designing and implementing six gender equality plans that will tackle different types of gender bias affecting equal opportunities amongst women and men in research institutions. It has four main objectives: remove barriers to female recruitment; address gender imbalances in research institutions and promote women in leadership positions; provide alternative references in traditionally male-dominated areas; and promote gender equality in research organisations. The project ends in December 2022. For more information, please see: GEARING ROLES project website Keywords GEARING ROLES, gender equality, women, board game, research, innovation, Nobel Prize
