UNOOSA and the Republic of Korea strengthen their partnership on Space4Women through a 3-year project dedicated to the participation of women in the space sector

Following the successful event of the 2022 Space4Women Expert Meeting in Daejeon, Republic of Korea, the Ministry of Science and ICT of the Republic of Korea (MSIT) and the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) have joined forces to conduct a global comprehensive study aimed at measuring the participation of women in the space sector.

This complex topic was discussed by participants of the 2022 Space4Women Expert Meeting, where they engaged in meaningful discussions on how to improve the measurement of the participation of women in the space sector. The group identified key issues and barriers such as the lack of publicly accessible data, non-standard methods of measurement, limited regional focus, and more. The participants also developed a series of recommendations to address such challenges. To learn more about the overall recommendations of the 2022 Expert Meeting, click here.

Thanks to the support from MSIT, and with assistance from the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), UNOOSA will be able to follow up on their recommendations and prepare a comprehensive study on women's participation in the global space workforce. These objectives align not only with the Space4Women mission, but also with the overall objectives of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development of progressing towards gender equality.

The research project will be implemented by UNOOSA over three years. It will start with a quantitative focus, collecting data on the number of women working in space organizations, and will later develop more qualitative aspects to understand the lived experiences of women in this sector. The first results are expected to be presented at the 66^th session of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in June 2024.