Today marks the 12th International Day of the Girl Child, established in 2011 by the United Nations to champion the rights and well-being of girls globally, tackling their unique challenges. This year’s theme is ‘Our time is now – our rights, our future,’ highlighting the urgency of the moment. A core mission of this day is to underscore the significance of girls’ education, fostering advocacy and activism for gender equality and girls’ rights
In recent years, Ireland has seen efforts to promote gender equality and celebrate the achievements of girls and women in traditionally male-dominated fields. This shift is particularly pronounced in the realm of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. As reported by The Irish Examiner in the context of the Leaving Certificate, the statistics are revealing. “While maths and biology are exceptions, only 41.5% of girls are pursuing other STEM-related subjects, compared to a significantly higher rate of 71% among boys. Moreover, the gender gap becomes even more apparent when considering that less than 9% of girls choose to study two or more STEM subjects outside of maths and biology, in contrast to 39% of boys who make that choice”.
So here are just some of the girls (some now women) who are breaking the mould and are doing extraordinary things in the area of STEM:
Rachael Akano, Margaret Akano and Joy Nzekwe
The team behind Memory Haven, an app for Alzheimer’s patience was developed by the girls and they entered The Technovation World Summit prize having been guided by the team at Termon Abbey particularly Evelyn Nomayo. All three of the team who are Nigerian Irish were inspired by Evelyn;s mother who has Alzheimer’s was developed with the Alzheimer’s association of Ireland and according to The Irish Independent “The Three Drogheda students won the top senior student prize at the world finals of Technovation World Summit 2020 and also walked away with the prestigious Popular Choice public vote under the guidance of Termon Abbey woman Evelyn Nomayo.”
5,400 students from 62 countries took part and Team Memory Haven was the only team from the European Union to have reached the finals”
Rachael is now a multimedia student at DCU and Margaret is now a Medical Student at Nicolaus Copernicus University Poland
Eilís Barrett
Galway native Eillís wrote her first novel Oasis when she was 16 which was published by Gill Books. According to the Irish Independent “Oasis tells the story of Quincy Emerson, a young girl who is on the run because she carries the X gene, a gene that causes a virus that nearly wiped out the human race. The remaining survivors live in a quarantined city, Oasis, free of the virus.”
Speaking to The Goss Magazine Eilis said “I never intended to get published so young. But getting to see my book, a story I’ve poured my heart and soul into for two years, sitting amongst the books that I love? That’s an experience I wouldn’t change for the world.”
Lauren Boyle
A developer of three websites at just nine years old, Lauren was named EU Digital Girl of the Year 2014. A native of Dublin Lauren is the founder of Cool Kids Studio, an initiative that spans three websites she has built herself. Lauren was recently presented with a Next Generation Award for Excellence at the Irish Internet Association’s Dot IE Net Visionary Awards, while Cool Kids Studio was recognised in the websites category at this year’s CoderDojo Coolest Projects Awards. Lauren was also shortlisted as an EU Digital Girl of the Year finalist, She has been recognised at the European Ada Awards ceremony in Rome as part of the e-Skills Making a Career with Digital Technologies event.
Edel Browne
According to her LinkedIn bio “Edel holds a BSc(Hons) Biotechnology and an MSc in Technology Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (TechInnovation) both from NUI Galway, and a recent graduate of Law at King’s Inns. Edel also holds a Diploma in Scientific and Technical French with Distinction from CCI Paris and has undertaken executive education in Healthcare, Innovation and Strategic Management at Imperial College London and Cambridge University.
Edel is a passionate communicator on the topics of entrepreneurship, healthcare innovation and the role of women in STEM. She has had the opportunity to participate in;
Forbes 30u30 Startup Showcase, UN Youth Commission for the Status of Women, World Economic Forum, The McGill International Entrepreneurship Conference, a TEDx talk entitled ‘The Accidental Entrepreneur’, as well as delivering various guest lectures on entrepreneurship and innovation across engineering, business and science disciplines at University level in Ireland and the UK.
Edel is passionate about the intersection between health, entrepreneurship and policy, and as such was a Member of the Class of 2018 of the Washington Ireland Program. She is a Governance Board Member of the University of Galway, and the National University of Ireland, and was the youngest person across Europe to be named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Science and Healthcare in 2019.
Edel was recognised as the Accenture Nominee for the GradIreland Graduate Employee of the Year Awards in 2020, and her current role involves management of new product development R&D at Tympany Medical.”
Katelyn Culleton
The 12 year old Climate Change activist won First Prize at the Galway Science and Technology Festival, she then got to present her idea on different recycling symbols “The Green dot means that a company has paid into a recycling fund and does not mean the product is recyclable. This symbol is often mistaken as the recycling symbol”. Since then she presented the idea to Minister Richard Bruton and in 2019 Katelyn then aged 11 was chosen to be the first speaker of the National Youth Assembly climate change event”. She was interviewed by The Sunday Times in the UK by saying “I see it as all connected — the pandemic and the fact that our environment is changing now”.
Maria Louise Fufezan and Diana Buru
Now 20 and 19 respectively, when they were students in Loreto Secondary School, Balbriggan, they won the 2016 BT Young Scientist Competition for their project on “An Investigation into the Effects of Enzymes used in Animal Feed Additives on the Lifespan of Caenorhabditis Elegans”. Maria and Diana were presented with a cheque for €5,000, the opportunity to represent Ireland at the 28th European Union Young Scientist competition in Brussels later this year and the BTYSTE perpetual trophy.
Maria Louise is now a final year medical student and Diana is a 4th Year Chemistry with Molecular Modelling Student
Sophie Healy-Thow
Sophie is a former winner of the BT Young Scientist competition, who is now the founder of Act4Food and Act4Change her LinkedIn says “In 2017 I was included by ESPN’s Julie Foudy in her book on Leadership called ‘Choose to Matter’. published by Disney. I am a Trustee of Action Aid UK. I am a Google Science Fair and European Young Scientist 2014 winner. In 2015, I was selected as Global Youth Leader by the United Nations at the Global Goals Mobilising Generation Zero Hunger Conference in New York. In 2015 I was appointed Ambassador by the ISPCC for their Youth Shield Award Anti Bullying Campaign.
Emer Hickey
Emer is a former winner of the BT Young Scientist competition, a PhD student in Medical Mycology in The University of Exeter, her LinkedIn bio states “I am a PhD student in Medical Mycology and my project focuses on the impact of gut-related inputs on Candida albicans adaptation in the gut. I have a keen interest in the mycobiota and the impact diet and metabolism can have on the progression of fungal disease. My work currently focuses on fungal infections originating in the gut. I am motivated by application-driven science, and so would like to work in the cross section of research and industry. I am deeply passionate about the promotion of young people in science. I work as Chief of Staff at the London International Youth Science Fair annually. I am determined to continue science outreach in my research career”
Ciara Judge
CIARA IS A PHD CANDIDATE IN GENOMICS AND EPIDEMIOLOGY, CURRENTLY DEVELOPING NEW METHODS OF MODELLING THE SPREAD OF INFECTIOUS DISEASES THAT INTEGRATE GENETIC DATA FROM THE DISEASE.
She hopes this research will allow us to model outbreaks far more accurately, thus informing improved policy and resource allocation in lower and middle-income countries. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ciara worked with the European Bioinformatics Institute and Cambridge Department of Chemistry to build a pipeline for modeling SARS-CoV-2 evolution that helped design variant-robust antibody treatments.
She has an extensive background in scientific research, for which she has won the Google Global Science Fair, the European Union Contest for Young Scientists and the BT Young Scientist of the Year, and has been named one of TIME Magazine’s ’25 Most Influential Teens’ in 2014. As a teen, two teammates and Ciara discovered a natural mechanism of a soil bacteria that could increase crop productivity by 50-75%. Her research focuses on the intersection of biology, computation and human health, as she believes that current advances in genomics can spur significant developments that will benefit the world at large.
Annie and Kate Madden – Fenu Health
More BT Young Scientist Competition winners the sisters won the competition in 2015. Now their company Fenu Health specialises in powder supplements to be added to horses hard feed to help prevent and solve the huge problem that gastric ulcers cause to horses. Now exporting to 12 countries and some of the biggest trainers in horse racing as clients the pair were put on the prestigious TransferWise ’20 Under 20′ – a list of the top 20 teen CEOs in Ireland and Britain. In fact they have a very impressive list of awards such as being listed in the top 5 Entrepreneurs to watch in 2018, being nominated for EO Global Student Entrepreneur Awards, winning the 2017 New Frontiers Award at The Irish Times Innovation Awards, 2017 Women Mean Business Sodexo Newcomer Award All Stars Start-up of the Year 2017, All Ireland Business summit to name a few.
In 2014 I was named as one of Time magazine’s Top 25 most influential teens. I am a 2017 UNleash talent and recently participated in the first ever UNleash symposium in Denmark. I am a regular speaker and panellist at international conferences and events and have presented programmes and written articles on education, science and food security. I am an excellent communicator with strong leadership skills and a self-motivator with a drive and ambition to succeed.”
Aoibheann Mangan
Currently aged 15, Aoibheann is a secondary school student in Mount St. Michael Secondary School, Claremorris, Aoibheann was co-named Digital Girl of the Year in the 11 to 14-year-old category in 2017. She’s an advocate of getting computer science into every school in Ireland Aoibheann has previously stated “It’s not fair that people in Dublin get access to everything because they can get it on the internet. Everyone should have those opportunities”. Through her lobbying efforts with companies such as Teen Turn or Coderdojo computer science is now a subject on the Leaving Cert, but she is still advocating for greater rural broadband access to make it fairer for every person in Ireland to take the class.
Forbes 30u30 Startup Showcase, UN Youth Commission for the Status of Women, World Economic Forum, The McGill International Entrepreneurship Conference, a TEDx talk entitled ‘The Accidental Entrepreneur’, as well as delivering various guest lectures on entrepreneurship and innovation across engineering, business and science disciplines at University level in Ireland and the UK.
Edel is passionate about the intersection between health, entrepreneurship and policy, and as such was a Member of the Class of 2018 of the Washington Ireland Program. She is a Governance Board Member of the University of Galway, and the National University of Ireland, and was the youngest person across Europe to be named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for Science and Healthcare in 2019.
Edel was recognised as the Accenture Nominee for the GradIreland Graduate Employee of the Year Awards in 2020, and her current role involves management of new product development R&D at Tympany Medical.”
5,400 students from 62 countries took part and Team Memory Haven was the only team from the European Union to have reached the finals”
Rachael is now a multimedia student at DCU and Margaret is now a Medical Student at Nicolaus Copernicus University Poland
Antoinette Marshall
Antoinette worked in the creative film, TV and animation industries for 10 years. She decided to transition into Engineering and studied a HNC Level 4 in General Engineering (Advanced Technician) at South West College. From here, Antoinette’s technology solution for disadvantaged learners was conceptualised early in her studies and it went on to receive several awards and recognitions. She received the Stricklands Engineering Scholarship aswell as the PBL Educational Impact Award at SWC in 2021-22. She was also shortlisted for a Diversity in Tech (Disability) award at the British Diversity Awards 23’, and for an Inclusive Skills Development award at the World Skills UK Awards for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Heroes. Winning the Young female STEM Pioneer award at DITA 23’ has been a real defining moment for Antoinette, and a great esteem of positive influence and support in her continued journey for DE&I advocacy.
Ciara-Beth Ní Ghríofa
In 2018, then aged 14 Ciara-Beth who is Autistic developed the Mi Contact App. She told Silicon Republic “It’s a matching game; you have a picture of a face and there are shapes displayed in the person’s eyes,” she explained. “Then the game is that you have to look at the eyes and select the correct shapes from buttons at the bottom of the screen.” The app and initial study won Ní Ghríofa the Abbott ‘Life to the Fullest’ Award at the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition in 2017 and she went on to take part in and win the BT Young Scientist Business Bootcamp that year. ” Now an autism advocate, Ciara-Beth has appeared on The Tommy Tiernan Show, and spoken at events such UNESCO World Empathy Day.
Having qualified from UCC in 2022 Ciara-Beth is now Technical Graduate at DXC Technology
Activist, journalist and trailblazer Joanne has Tetra-amelia syndrome which means she was born with no limbs and uses a wheelchair to move around. In 2011 when Joanne was 15 she met then Taoiseach Enda Kenny on the campaign trail where he promised her he would not cut disability funding if elected. Once elected he then cut the funding. Joanne launched a media campaign that saw the government do a U-turn on this decision.
After this Joanne spoke at the UN challenging those present to build a robot for her to use which led to the documentary No Limbs, No Limits. In September 2012, she was named Young Person of the Year at Ireland’s People of the Year Awards In 2014, she was awarded the Junior Chamber International and Outstanding Young Person of the Year award,
Joanne is a recent graduate in criminology from UCC Joanne has now increased her media presence. Creating The Joanne O’Riordan Podcast, interviewing some of The Republic of Ireland’s biggest game changers, holding in-depth conversations about their careers.currently writes a sports column every month in The Irish Times and the self confessed sports addict is passionate about women’s sports and promoting participation within sports in The Republic of Ireland now she has her own podcast on Cork FM and is a sports writer for The Irish Times, contributed to RTE 2’s sports programmes such as The Paralympics or The Women’s World Cup 2023,
A tireless worker, Aoibheann began coding with Coderdojo and remains a mentor with them to this day. She previously co-founded a farming safety website for kids which earned them such prestigious accolades as Pride of Ireland, People of the Year and Eir Junior Spider awards and Aoibheann was at the Everywoman in Technology Awards in 2020 where she jointly received the Ones-To-Watch award.
She also leads a monthly coding and physical computing workshop and was also involved in a panel discussion at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, highlighting her work to encourage female participation in STEM.
Having been a coder since the age of 9 when she first went to a Coder Dojo club, by 11 Niamh has created her own website learntocode.eu and her own app Recharge My Car. In 2015 Niamh was announced as EU Digital Girl of the Year saying “Coding is a skill that I think all young people should get a chance to learn, because it means you can not only use technology, you can create things with it too. Young people, teenagers and younger, around Europe and around the world are already learning to create and solve problems with coding, and it is going to be amazing to see what they do in the future with these skills”
Lynetta Wang
Lynetta Wang, a remarkable 17-year-old who is currently studing in the Institute of Education, is a shining example of youthful passion and dedication in the field of molecular biology. Her commitment to scientific discovery can be seen in her groundbreaking work on pancreatic cancer research at the Trinity Translational Medicine Institute. Lynetta is also a proud Patch 2023 alumni and the co-founder of Eirmed, a pioneering continuous hormone monitoring solution. In addition to this she is the founder of MicroInfluence STEM, a groundbreaking student-led initiative in Ireland dedicated to fostering STEM leadership among young minds. Lynetta’s initiatives have touched the lives of over 3000 secondary school students, thanks to her collaborative programs and invaluable partnerships with industry giants such as Accenture, Microsoft, and Flynn
Lynetta’s ambitions continue to rise, with her new MI STEM programs set to pilot in five schools throughout the 2023-2024 academic year. The Shona Project Junior Ambassador and has represented women in STEM as a guest speaker on Newstalk with Jess Kelly. Lynetta Wang’s future in the world of science and education is indeed a bright and promising one.