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Dear students and colleagues,
11 February marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly a few years ago. The holiday commemorates the importance and contribution of women and girls in science and technology, motivates and encourages the development of their talents in these fields, and also draws attention to some persistent stereotypes and inequalities. Although the original General Assembly resolution focused on the natural sciences, technology, engineering and mathematics, the humanities disciplines soon naturally adopted the holiday as their own. After all, the values and ideas behind it have been part of cultivating knowledge from its beginnings.
In this context, let us recall the women who contributed to the formulation and development of Pythagorean thought or Hipparchia of Marion, a representative of the Cynic school, whose views on the relationship between men and women are persuasive and fresh even in today's debates. A glance at the past shows that women's participation in science was never prominent or easy and teaches us that the environment in which research is conducted must be nurtured so that science is accessible to all. So let us not only remind ourselves every 42nd day of the year that the curiosity and wonder that underlie our fields and disciplines are universal human qualities and have no gender.
Zdeňka Jastrzembská
Vice-dean for admissions and public relations, Faculty of Arts MU
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