Girls Day 2015
On 23 April, 38 girls aged 14 to 16 visited the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt. They participated in two space workshops, a guided tour of the ESOC facilities and a question and answer session with female staff (‘Space Girls’) and learnt about space missions and future career opportunities.
23 April is called Girls Day in Germany. A day when many organisations, research centres and universities in Germany hold an open day for girls with the aim of promoting subjects such as science and engineering.
ESA joins them in this goal and wants to encourage girls to live up to their personal and intellectual abilities and to consider space research and operations as a potential field of work.
Girls of all ages are great academic achievers and often take home the highest marks in their class. When it comes to choosing an area of further study, however, girls opt for subjects such as natural sciences and engineering much less often than boys.
Thus girls unfortunately remain consistently underrepresented in industry jobs and it is this that Girls' Day hopes to address.
More information
ESOC and the ESA Education office aim to nurture young peoples’ interest in space and technology throughout the year. To learn more about ESA’s educational projects take a look at our Teachers' corner.