Recently, young women and girls around the world have been vocal in calling for action to combat climate change everywhere. When 16-year-old Swede Greta Thunberg charged World Economic Forum attendees in Switzerland to ‘act as if our house is on fire’, she was voicing sentiments similar to many of her age.Women’s and girls’ voices and expertise in science, technology and innovation are vital to bring solutions to the disruptive change in our rapidly evolving world. We urgently need to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields and actively promote gender equality in science, technology and innovation careers.