ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Tuesday that empowering females is a “national priority” and essential for the nation’s economic well-being and development, as the world marks International Day of Women and Girls in Science. 

The world marks Feb. 11 each year as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to highlight the significant gender gap in all levels of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines around the world. 

In conservative Pakistan, some rural areas are still ruled by a patriarchal system of male village elders who wield significant influence in their communities and bar women from seeking educational and employment opportunities. 

“For us empowering women and girls in science is a national priority and an all-out effort is being made to create an enabling environment and providing equal opportunities, to ensure that women become key drivers of progress and innovation in the 21st century,” Sharif said in a message shared by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO). 

He said the Pakistani government has prioritized programs that focus on skill development, support for women-led start-ups and greater access to research funding. 

“Initiatives include training in robotics, AI and digital solutions, scholarships and programs encouraging innovation and entrepreneurship,” the PMO said. 

Sharif highlighted the underrepresentation of women in science and technology, noting that they make up less than 30 percent of the world’s researchers and only 22 percent in the field of AI, citing data from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Despite the challenges in conservative Pakistan, some women have made significant contributions to science globally. Dr. Nergis Mavalvala, a Pakistani American astrophysicist, was part of the team that achieved the scientific milestone of detecting gravitational waves, ripples in space and time hypothesized by physicist Albert Einstein a century ago. Dr. Tasneem Zehra Husain, a theoretical physicist, science writer and educator, made headlines around the world when she became the first Pakistani woman to earn a PhD in string theory.