500 Women Scientists is a grassroots organisation that connects women scientists around the world through local communities. It provides a support network for researchers, advocates for a more inclusive scientific community, and provides its members with science communication opportunities.
Who can connect with the 500 Women Scientists resources?
- Women scientists can join local pods to connect with others or become involved in advocacy. If you don’t have time to get too involved right away, you can also list yourselves in the Request a Woman Scientist database to indicate that you’re open to being contacted about collaborations, speaking engagements, or to answer questions from journalists about your research.
- Anyone looking for an expert. Through the Request a Woman Scientist database, anyone who needs an expert in a particular field can search by keyword, location and general subject area to find scientists around the world. This can be useful if you’re looking for speakers for an event.
- Anyone interested in science communication. The 500 Women Scientists website also has a useful collection of resources that includes advice on how to write an Op-Ed piece or tips for public speaking.
A platform for change
For women scientists who want to get more involved in advocacy, 500 Women Scientists regularly provides their community with opportunities to speak out about issues around gender equality in science. They organise Wikipedia Edit-a-thons, where a group of people get together to update and edit Wikipedia pages about women in science. The organisation also encourages communication through opinion pieces, and some of their pods have written about science policy issues for their local publications.
Find out more
- Resources on the 500 Women Scientists site
- Sankaran V. This project literally puts female scientists on the map. The Next Web. 2018.
- Barrett A. Profile: 500 Women Scientists, the organisation that’s building a more inclusive scientific society on a global scale. TechSPARK.co. 2018.
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