Women in Blue: Toward a Better Understanding of the Gender Gap in Marine Robotics [Women in Engineering]

Abstract

The gender gap is a global challenge bearing significant societal consequences, as highlighted by Caroline Criado Perez in her book <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Invisible Women</i> <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref1" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[1]</xref> . Here the author points to a male-dominated approach to all aspects of life as a way of thinking that has been around for millennia, exposing data bias in a world designed for men. Criado’s reasoning process unveils not only a bias in data representation but also in knowledge production. Therefore, we speak not only about a world designed for men but also about men. Traditionally male-dominated fields such as science, technology, mathematics, and engineering (STEM) have seen slow progress in closing the gender gap. A recent study by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="ref2" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">[2]</xref> shows that women still account for only a third of STEM researchers worldwide and approximately 22% of workers in artificial intelligence.