United Nations, the Struggle for Gender Equity, and Queering Global Science.

Abstract

UN Women is the United Nations "entity dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women". UN Women is an example of the institutions of global governance that followed the gender turn in women's rights over the past 2 decades. This opinion commentary unpacks a brief history of UN Women, and the ongoing disparities in gender diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in science, engineering, and medicine, not to mention in science communication, with the aim to shed light on the adverse impacts of gender essentialism and gender binary. First, I argue that another world and liberatory structural change are indeed possible by resisting and refusing empty platitudes for band-aid solutions, disingenuous pleasantries and cultures of scheming for professional ladder-climbing that cloak the systemic causes-of-causes and sustain DEI inequities. Second, I argue for systems thinking and reflexive change in research cultures through queering global science, and rethinking everyday hegemonic assumptions and the prevailing blind spots in sex, gender, science, and society. Third, queer theory is not limited to studies of gender and sexuality. When used as a verb, "queering," its meaning broadens so as to mean critical examination of the unchecked assumptions and norms in a given field of scholarly inquiry. The DEI inequities in science, engineering, and medicine are real, harmful to individuals and communities in the present historical moment, and undermine intergenerational justice, not to mention hinder science and innovation. Going forward in the current decade amid uncertainty and polycrisis in world affairs and global democracy, the systemic gaps in gender equity in everyday laboratory life and on the streets ought to be remedied for global science and planetary health to be just, responsible, democratic, and innovative.