On August 10, the First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova, as part of the art initiative She is Science, opened a cultural and educational exhibition at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. The exhibition is dedicated to two important topics at once. One of the topics is popularizing the achievements of Ukrainian science on a global scale. Another one is ensuring gender equality, in particular, for the self-realization of girls and women in the fields of exact sciences and natural specialties (STEM).

Among the invited guests of the event, there were Murat Sahin and Erika Kvapilova, heads of the representative offices in Ukraine of UNICEF and UN Women that support the project, Anastasia Suvorova and Marta Shvets, the winners of the essay competition about Ukrainian female scientists (the competition was held under the auspices of the initiative), as well as Daria Bychkova and other representatives of the STEM is FEM project who implement the initiative She is Science.

“It is an exposition of unique portraits of 12 world-famous Ukrainian female scientists, including cyberneticist Kateryna Yushchenko, neurobiologist Nana Voitenko, geneticist Oksana Piven, mathematicians Olena Vaneeva and Maryna Viazovska. Their unique contribution to the world science should be properly represented at the international level,” Emine Dzhaparova noted.

She also added that it was the MFA that became the first state authority in Ukraine to carry out a gender audit. “In recent years, we have made significant progress in the field of ensuring gender equality. We have a clear Action plan and a Strategy for expanding real opportunities for female diplomats in all sectors of the diplomatic service, without exception, by which we are guided in our daily work,” the First Deputy Minister said.

Reference: She is Science is a modern educational art initiative implemented by the charity project STEM is FEM and supported by the United Nations Children's Fund in Ukraine (UNICEF) and UN Women in Ukraine as part of the global campaign Generation of Equality.

 Within its framework, five modern Ukrainian illustrators created portraits of 12 famous Ukrainian female scientists, and after that, girls from all over Ukraine were invited to take part in an essay competition about any of these outstanding scientists.

The goal of the project is to present successful Ukrainian female scientists to young girls as role models who will inspire them to believe in their own future in the field of STEM.

561 girls aged 14 to 21 years took part in the competition.

The award ceremony for 12 winners of the All-Ukrainian essay competition She is Science took place on June 10 and was attended by the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska.