Encouraging women's participation in STEM: three examples of digital campaigns (2017-2019)

Although their presence in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) has increased significantly over the past fifty years, women remain vastly underrepresented in these promising sectors. The many factors contributing to the lack of gender parity in STEM disciplines are now well documented, and in recent years multiple actors have implemented awareness and advocacy campaigns to encourage the participation of girls and women. to STEM. Despite these efforts, the problem persists and is gaining increasing prominence in current debates on gender and work. In a comparative approach, this article focuses on the deployment of digital campaigns aimed at inspiring young girls and women to take the path of science and technology in three Commonwealth countries: Canada, Scotland and India. It proposes, first of all, to return to the reasons for the growing importance of the issue of gender and diversity in STEM. By taking care to place the campaigns in their societal context of production, it will then study the way in which each of these campaigns allows women to regain control of the narrative and contribute to the deconstruction of gender stereotypes. The campaigns chosen place the issues of representation and self-representation of women in STEM at the heart of the debate and show how women in science and technology perceive their trajectory as well as the work culture in which they evolve.