Over the years, CERN has celebrated international women’s day by sharing stories, interviews, videos, special shifts in the control rooms and live events dedicated to women and their contribution to the mission of the Laboratory.  Each time the underlying message is “Great science needs great people”, putting the emphasis on the importance of diversity in all professional categories as one of the pillars of CERN’s convention.

On the occasion of International Women’s day 2016, CERN showcases some of the great women who have broken down barriers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) through the six decades of CERN’s history. These historic role models of the past, and the increasing number of women who are shaping the large global organization that CERN has become today, can help to inspire more young people to pursue careers in science and ignite passion about STEM fields among diverse groups.

Find out more about how CERN has helped to debug the gender gap in computer programming and meet inspirational women from the ATLAS experiment at CERN.