On February 7, the inauguration of the educational and artistic exhibition “She is Science” took place at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The event, organized by the Permanent Delegation of Ukraine to UNESCO in cooperation with the National Commission of Ukraine for UNESCO and the educational and charitable project “STEM is FEM”, is dedicated to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrated each year on February 11.

In a non-trivial way, the exhibition demonstrates the lives and discoveries of 12 Ukrainian women scientists who have made a significant contribution to the development of physics, mathematics, and biology. The exhibition brings together stylized portraits of these scientists created by young Ukrainian illustrators and essays written on these famous women by young Ukrainian girls aged 14 to 21.

The opening brought together diplomats and scientists. Nataliia Omelchenko, the spouse of the Permanent Delegate of Ukraine to UNESCO, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to France Vadym Omelchenko, opened the inauguration ceremony. Nataliia Omelchenko considers the exhibition to be an excellent example for other countries since it inspires women from all over the world to contribute to science and scientific research on the basis of Ukrainian experience.

The opening ceremony was attended by Gaith Fariz (PhD), Director of the Division of Science Policy and Capacity-Building of UNESCO's Natural Sciences Sector, Senior Adviser of the Assistant Director-General for Natural Sciences, who highly appreciated the contribution of Ukrainian scientists to the international science and noted that the exhibition highlighted a very important issue – the participation of girls and women in science. Gaith Fariz stressed that gender equality was a global priority for UNESCO, and the exhibition was a great concrete example of how to promote science among women and to break stereotypes that science and STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) are exclusively male fields.

The guests of the event had the opportunity to meet and to talk to Olena Vanieieva (PhD in Math and Physics), the heroine of the exhibition, 2020 International Rising Talent of the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Programme, who demonstrates that science also has a female face.

Elizaveta Korenko, coordinator of the project “STEM is FEM”, who initiated the educational art project “SHE is SCIENCE” with the support of UN Women in Ukraine and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) in Ukraine as part UN Women's global campaign “Generation of Equality”, also attended the opening of the exhibition. Elizaveta Korenko shared her experience in popularizing scientific specialties and introduced Ukrainian scientists, whose portraits are displayed at the exhibition.

Since science is one of the main activities of UNESCO, and gender equality is one of its two global priorities (the other is Africa), the event, dedicated to women in science, received a positive response and a great interest among the Permanent Delegations and Observer Missions accredited to UNESCO. The inauguration was attended by more than 100 guests who highly appreciated the achievements of Ukrainian scientists, bright portraits and interesting essays, and expressed gratitude to the Ukrainian side for this excellent initiative.

The exhibition will be open from 7 until 11 February at the UNESCO Headquarters.