The history of women in science shows us the fight is worth it

The ability to participate in science has always been political. On International Women's Day, scientists must decide how best to defend women's rights

The politics of the moment seem fuelled by a bonfire of the enlightenment principles that many of us never even realised were vanities. As waves of people take to the streets to march in defence of women's rights to control their own bodies, and keep the heavy hand of government from holding back the science vital to our survival as a species, there is a palpable feeling amongst many of us that, if we don't want to end up in a cut-rate dystopia, we had better do something. On International Women's Day, we need to ask ourselves what that is. Do we take part in a global call to strike, or do we mass and march?

The recent globally coordinated marches have been criticised as the 'wrong kind' of activism; a waste of time or strike action is only viable for the privileged. Even the upcoming March for Science in support of the beleaguered principles of independent, blue-sky research seems to have gotten into a state trying to work out what exactly it should be. An early call to action explicitly stated the march would be a 'non political' protest, prompting considerable soul-searching among scientists and a swift rejection of claims science can in ever be apolitical-it is, after all, made up of people.