Women Just Wanna Have OR: Young Researchers Interview Expert Researchers

Is the gender gap still a topic in the academic world and in particular in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)? What difficulties did women who pursue a career in academia have to overcome? What are the differences among countries and what has changed compared to the past? As women and members of a community of young researchers in Operations Research (OR), we have tried to find answers to these questions by interviewing a group of prominent female professors and affirmed researchers in STEM belonging to different generations, with dissimilar careers and experiences. We have discussed with them about awareness, leaky pipelines, mobility, mentoring, society, role of education, and more. Their motivating stories and opinions contained in this article have allowed us to extrapolate a portrait of what barriers women encountered in STEM in the past, but also what challenges and stereotypes are still to be overcome, striving to close the gap.