Chemistry has often been termed as the central science because of its role in connecting physical, life, and applied sciences. Its role working on challenges in climate change, energy, food, health and water, and developing innovative technologies ranging from drugs, water purification systems to batteries, novel materials, and solar cells for energy applications is widely recognized. The advent of the pandemic highlighted an ever more decisive role of the chemical sciences with many scientists from the chemistry community contributing to the global fight against coronavirus; unravelling the molecular details of viral proteins and virus organization; understanding its transmissibility and infectivity; and developing new diagnostic tests, candidate drugs, and vaccines to tackle it. Together with these new discoveries, a new role for scientists in society has also emerged. Scientists from around the world were brought into the spotlight as role models for the public, and most importantly they have helped recognize that people from working- and middle-class families are driving breakthrough discoveries, being at the top of science, and helping humankind. This highlighted the fact that science is for everyone─for women, people of color, people with disabilities, minorities, transgenders─and they can all make a difference. (1) At the same time, the pandemic has stressed inequalities in science as COVID-19 has disproportionately affected communities of color, those without access to technology or internet, and women who have halted their education and careers as they took on extra childcare duties associated with lockdowns. (1) Following the response and impact of JCIM’s special issue on Women in Computational Chemistry (2−4) in May 2019 to support addressing the issue of gender disparity in science, JCIM is launching a new call for papers for a special issue on “Advancing Women in Chemistry”. This special issue aims to raise awareness for addressing and closing the gender gap in chemical sciences. In fact, the newest studies show that only 33% of researchers and 28% of engineers worldwide are women; (5) 73% of people state that women, and in general under-represented minorities, often lack equal access to STEM education. (6,7) Among doctoral graduates, women are close to reaching gender parity in the EU, being 48.1% of all doctoral graduates; however they fail to advance to higher professional ranks compared to their male peers with 26.2% only being full professors. (8,9) This drop in ranks happens because promotions usually come at the time of optimal childbearing age; women scientists often face the dilemma of choosing between raising a young family and the omnipresent demands of a highly ranked academic or industrial job. In reality, the majority of child care, housework, and household management is done by women, and women scientists are no exception in assuming this greater burden. Unfortunately, one of the biggest issues in this direction is the absence of career allowances for the time spent in having and raising children, (10) but also for the added challenges of miscarriage, infertility, and unsuccessful adoption, which are rarely taken into account yet take a big toll in women’s productivity. (11,12) As the current worldwide challenges demonstrate, today’s pressing problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, decline of ocean health, and pandemics are all global issues, and thus scientists from all over the world, irrespective of gender, race, religious belief, or any other characteristic, must be mobilized. (13) Actions toward including more women scientists globally can be to build support networks for women scientists, nominate women for awards and leadership positions, invite more women speakers and moderators in conferences and panels, ensure that there is gender balance on important decision-making committees and panels, be an active by-stander if witnessing issues of nonequality or unfairness, and learn to recognize implicit bias and take steps to counteract it. (14,15) Also, offering funding to foster successful professional re-entry, providing roles and positions for women who have left professional positions to have children, child-bearing (but also loss) allowances for awards, grants and positions, no-cost extensions for grants, university and industrial child care, extended tenure track jobs, leveraging technology to enable parents to work from home while children are young or ill, and offering child care during professional meetings and conferences could lead to higher percentages of women in high professional ranks. (10) It is in this inclusion spirit that we invite scientists from around the globe to submit manuscripts focused on a combination of experimental work and chemical information and modeling, or just theoretical work for this special issue on “Advancing Women in Chemistry”. We welcome all types of manuscripts, which are consistent with the scope of JCIM, such as full articles, perspectives, reviews, viewpoints, letters, and application notes (more information about the manuscript types can be obtained from http://pubs.acs.org/paragonplus/submission/jcisd8/jcisd8_authguide.pdf). We welcome all authors irrespective of gender; however, for the manuscript to be considered for the publication in this special issue, the authors should provide a statement that they are committed to supporting and advancing women in chemistry. We ask interested scientists to submit manuscripts for this special issue by February 15, 2022. We hope that this special issue will be a platform to publicize exceptional works but also to create a support network that will advocate and instigate change for the new generation of women in chemistry. This special issue could inspire the next generation of scientists─hopefully a more diverse one─and give a voice to chemists worldwide to showcase how the chemistry community can navigate the many challenges by adapting and thriving. This article references 15 other publications.

中文翻译：

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促进女性化学

化学通常被称为中心科学，因为它在连接物理、生命和应用科学方面发挥着重要作用。它在应对气候变化、能源、食品、健康和水方面的挑战以及开发从药物、水净化系统到电池、新型材料和用于能源应用的太阳能电池等创新技术方面的作用得到了广泛认可。大流行的到来凸显了化学科学的决定性作用，化学界的许多科学家为全球抗击冠状病毒做出了贡献；揭示病毒蛋白和病毒组织的分子细节；了解其传播性和传染性；并开发新的诊断测试、候选药物和疫苗来解决它。连同这些新发现，科学家在社会中的新角色也出现了。来自世界各地的科学家作为公众的榜样被带到了聚光灯下，最重要的是，他们帮助认识到来自工薪阶层和中产阶级家庭的人们正在推动突破性发现，站在科学的顶端，并帮助人类。这凸显了一个事实，即科学适用于所有人——女性、有色人种、残疾人、少数族裔、跨性别者——他们都可以有所作为。(1) 与此同时，这一流行病强调了科学领域的不平等，因为 COVID-19 严重影响了有色人种社区、无法使用技术或互联网的社区，以及因承担额外的育儿职责而停止教育和职业的女性与锁定有关。计算化学领域的女性(2−4) 2019 年 5 月，为了支持解决科学中的性别差异问题，JCIM 正在发起新的征文活动，以征集“促进女性化学”特刊。本期特刊旨在提高人们对解决和缩小化学科学中性别差距的认识。事实上，最新研究表明，全球只有 33% 的研究人员和 28% 的工程师是女性；(5) 73% 的人表示，女性，以及总体上代表性不足的少数群体，往往缺乏平等接受 STEM 教育的机会。(6,7) 在博士毕业生中，女性在欧盟接近实现性别平等，占所有博士毕业生的 48.1%；然而，与男性同龄人相比，他们未能晋升到更高的专业级别，只有 26.2% 的人是正教授。(8, 9) 排名下降是因为升职通常发生在最佳生育年龄；女科学家经常面临在抚养年轻家庭和无所不在的高学术或工业工作需求之间做出选择的两难境地。实际上，大部分的育儿、家务和家务管理都是由女性完成的，女性科学家也不例外地承担了这一更大的负担。不幸的是，在这个方向上最大的问题之一是没有为生育和抚养孩子所花费的时间提供职业津贴，（10）而且还有流产、不孕和收养失败等额外挑战，这些挑战很少被考虑在内却对女性的生产力造成巨大损失。(11,12) 正如当前世界范围内的挑战所表明的那样，当今紧迫的问题，例如气候变化，生物多样性丧失、海洋健康下降和流行病都是全球性问题，因此必须动员来自世界各地的科学家，不分性别、种族、宗教信仰或任何其他特征。(13) 在全球范围内纳入更多女性科学家的行动可以是为女性科学家建立支持网络，提名女性担任奖项和领导职位，邀请更多女性发言人和主持人参加会议和小组讨论，确保在重要决策中实现性别平衡委员会和专家组，在目睹不平等或不公平问题时成为积极的旁观者，并学会识别隐含的偏见并采取措施加以抵制。(14,15) 此外，提供资金以促进成功的专业重新进入，为离开专业岗位生孩子的女性提供角色和职位，为奖励、助学金和职位提供生育（但也包括损失）津贴，免费延长助学金，大学和工业儿童保育，延长任期轨道工作，利用使父母能够在孩子年幼或生病时在家工作的技术，以及在专业会议和会议期间提供托儿服务，可以提高女性在高级专业职位中的比例。(10) 正是本着这种包容精神，我们邀请来自世界各地的科学家提交侧重于实验工作、化学信息和建模相结合的手稿，或者只是本期“推进女性化学”的理论工作。欢迎各类稿件，符合JCIM范围，例如完整的文章、观点、评论、观点、信件和应用说明（有关手稿类型的更多信息可以从 http://pubs.acs.org/paragonplus/submission/jcisd8/jcisd8_authguide.pdf 获得）。我们欢迎所有作者，不分性别；然而，对于要考虑在本期特刊中发表的手稿，作者应提供一份声明，表明他们致力于支持和促进女性在化学领域的发展。我们要求感兴趣的科学家在 2022 年 2 月 15 日之前提交本期特刊的手稿。我们希望本期特刊将成为宣传杰出作品的平台，同时也创建一个支持网络，为新一代女性倡导和推动变革在化学。本期特刊可以激励下一代科学家——希望是更加多样化的科学家——并让全世界的化学家们发出声音，展示化学界如何通过适应和发展来应对众多挑战。本文引用了其他 15 种出版物。