The International Day of Women and Girls in Science & International Women's Day 2025
As part of International Women’s Day (IWD), the women’s network has organised a series of events to celebrate the achievements of women astronomers and to recognise the challenges that they still face within the field.
International Day for Women and Girls in Science
We celebrated the international Day for Women and Girls in Science with a fun fact-filled quiz, centred on female astronomers and the amazing work they have done, and some cupcakes! Many thanks to Jiten Dhandha for leading this event.
IWD Open Evening
On the 5th of March we took over the Wednesday open evening where Lisa Kelsey, Leah Bigwood and Frances Rigby each gave flash talks about their work and a woman astronomer that inspires them. The recording is up on YouTube and can be seen here. We also ran the quiz that Jiten prepared, awarding a signed copy of the book The Sky is for Everyone to the winner.
IWD School Outreach
On the 7th and 10th of March we hosted 60 school children each day for a morning of astronomy workshops, with a focus on the contributions of women astronomers. The children learnt about finding exoplanets using the transit method, built their own spectrograph and learnt about the spectra of stars, and discovered missions exploring our solar system.
IWD at the IoA Open Day
We will also be running our quiz at this year’s IoA Open Day, with loads of stickers to be won! Anke Ardern-Arentsen, Robb Calder and Stephanie Buttigieg will also be giving flash talks about inspiring women in astronomy.
IWD Departmental Event
Our annual IWD departmental event will take place on Wednesday the 26th of March between 12:30 and 15:00, with lunch from Aromi being served in the Hoyle foyer before the event.
We have a fantastic keynote speaker lined up, Professor Dame Athene Donald who has previously served as the University Gender Equality Champion and Master of Churchill college, among other appointments. Her talk will be followed by a panel discussion featuring women researchers at different points of their career, with tea being served after in the foyer.
IWD on Social Media
Throughout the months of February and March, the Institute posted a series of videos celebrating women researchers and highlighting the challenges that they still face to this day.
- On 11th Feb 2025, we celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.To start this off, here’s Stephanie @sipping_cosmos, one of this year’s co-chairs of the International Women’s Day committee.
- Here's Dr Amy Bonsor talking about her research on rocky planets around other stars, and someone who supported her in her career
- This week we’re introducing Sarah Kane. Here she is talking about Star Trek inspiring her career and an astrophysicist she looks up to.
- Here’s Dr Matt Grayling talking about how men can be better allies to women scientists and the current challenges faced by the Vera Rubin observatory.
- Dr Greg Cooke is talking about Professor Sara Seager, a pioneer in the field of exoplanet research and the search for life on other planets.
- Dr Lisa Kelsey is talking about women she’s met throughout her career who inspired her, and how the way we speak to young girls in school affect their career choices
Stay tuned for more on Instagram & TikTok: @cambridge_astro
International Women's Day @ IoA
In recent years, the IoA has marked International Women's Day through initiatives designed to celebrate and inspire women in Astronomy. These initiatives and their accompanying resources are showcased below.
International Women’s Day 2024
On Friday 8th March we celebrated International Women’s Day at the IoA, with a full programme of events, including a keynote talk by Ghina Halabi, and a series of mini-talks and events given by invited speakers from around DAMPT, the Institute of Astronomy, the Kavli Institute for Cosmology and the department of Astrophysics. In addition, on the 6th and 7th of March, the IoA hosted to 120 Key Stage 3 students from local schools. This 2024 International Women’s Day event introduced the students to the cutting-edge research conducted by women and minority researchers at the Institute of Astronomy through a morning of hands-on, engaging, and self-directed educational workshops.
The students learned how exoplanets are detected through a coding workshop utilising real data, how astronomers harness light to study the sky through a spectrograph-making workshop, and how astronomers explore planets in the solar system.
2023: IWD23
2022: IWD22 one-day meeting at the IoA
On Tuesday the 8th of March 2022, we held a one-day event to honour the scientific contributions made by women at the Institute of Astronomy. See International Women’s Day 2022 (IWD22) for the meeting page.
This inspiring day included an introduction by Prof. Cathie Clarke, a keynote address by Prof. Belinda Wilkes (online link TBC), a Tour with the Lens of Women at Cambridge Observatory, and a Careers Panel. The latter providing an engaging forum for questions and discussions on the career and life challenges that are faced by all early and mid-career astronomers.
We also commenced activities looking forward to 2023, with interviews for Outreach Legacy project and ideas for a three-day event in 2023.
Here is the group photo from this fantastic day!
2021: Inspiration from Cambridge Astro Women
To celebrate International Women's Day 2021, women in Astronomy throughout Cambridge have shared the women who inspire them, inspirational quotes and advice they would give to their younger selves. Click here to see the full gallery!
2020: Cambridge Astronomy Voices & The Women Who Inspired Us
Astro Voices is an IAU project that aims at creating a short film featuring women astronomers from around the world to celebrate the IAU 100th Anniversary. The goal is to promote the image of astronomers as an exciting career and to stimulate interest for women and girls everywhere. In 2019, some of the women astronomers from the University of Cambridge recorded video clips for the IAU Astro Voices project. Below is a compilation of these clips - Cambridge Astronomy Voices - which was put together to celebrate International Women’s Day 2020.
The Women Who inspired Us is a collection of short biographies describing some of the women who have inspired members of the IoA.
2019: Celebrating Women in Astronomy
To visually inspire the upcoming generation of astronomers to the same success we chose to celebrate Women in Astronomy by showcasing the astronomy careers of influential women who have pursued their science at Cambridge. We present here their rich scientific endeavours and their variety of pathways to success.
