Women in chemistry: our hopes for the next decade

hilpi Kushwaha, Kira Gerber Astakhova, Mihaiela C Stuparu, M Carmen Galan, Hoi Ri Moon, Anna Maria Papini, Brittany White-Mathieu, Kate M Waldie, Megan G Roberts, Yael David, Anna Knörlein, Claire Kammerer, Isabelle Fournier

Trends in Chemistry

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trechm.2026.02.002

Abstract

To celebrate International Women’s Day 2026, we invited the female corresponding authors from our 2025 issues to consider their career paths, reflect on the field as they see it today, and imagine what academia might look like for women 10 years from now.

Each participant was asked the same question: When you imagine the future of chemistry 10 years from now, what challenge for women do you hope we will look back on as outdated, and why? What could it take to get there?

Our participants come from a wide range of experiences, career stages, subdisciplines, and geographies, but their responses reflect their common desires for meaningful progress, structural change and understanding, and to excel without limits. Importantly, they showcase a hopeful attitude that the culture can evolve ‘with’ women by accommodating adjustments that make a chemistry research career genuinely inclusive rather than conditional, for greater participation, retention, and collaboration. Together, their answers point to a future in which the whole chemistry community benefits; such changes have the potential to strengthen global academic communities and promote the expansion and acceleration of scientific progress and discovery for years to come.