Unseen Stars

Background

Women made up 47% of the workforce but only accounted for 14% of engineers. Even then, the work of those women went unrecognised. Only two women have won the Nobel Prize in Physics with the most recent awarded over 50 years ago. GE wanted to increase representation for female scientists and to highlight the fundamental contributions women make to science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

Idea

From piloting space shuttles to finding cures for cancer, women have always played an important role in the sciences but their accomplishments were often forgotten. To honour female scientists, the idea was to treat them like stars.

Grand Central was known for the constellations painted on its ceiling depicting mythical heroes. The idea was to transform them to show real heroes: women engineers, chemists and physicists who had made important scientific contributions, even if those contributions had often been overlooked. They were the Unseen Stars of science, the women who helped shape the world today.

12 scientists, who were doing pioneering work in their fields, were selected. In partnership with Obscura Digital, each scientist's portrait was turned into a unique constellation. These constellations were turned into a seven-minute show that took viewers on a voyage through outer space as they learned about each scientist's achievements. Projectors were placed around Grand Central that displayed the show on the main terminal's ceiling, accompanied by a sound track and narrative that took viewers through the journey. The show was part of GE's "Balance the Equation" initiative, a push to hire, promote and retain more women in science and technology. The piece became more than something commuters simply looked up at on their way through the terminal. It drew New Yorkers and tourists alike to Grand Central just to experience it, with influencers and news outlets like NBC, ABC, Forbes, Mashable, People, and Teen Vogue covering the experience and encouraging people to come see the Unseen Stars.

Results

GE was the first brand to do projection mapping on the ceiling of Grand Central. The show received over 300 million total impressions and an estimated 2.3 million views in person. That was more than Manhattan's entire population, all for an event that only ran 4 days.

Our Thoughts

This is part of an on-going campaign from GE to champion the contribution women have played and are playing in the sciences.

Alongside this installation, #BalanceTheEquation also features a TV spot featuring Millie Dresselhaus, asking "What if we treated scientists like we treat other celebrities?"

In one vignette, a girl unboxes a Millie Dresselhaus doll, in another several girls dress up with curly white hair wigs and red jumpers to look like Millie, a third shows a Millie emoji, etc.

The intention is to get 20,000 women into technical jobs at GE by 2020.

This isn't just about gender balance, it's about economics. In one study, companies that were more gender-diverse performed 53% better than those that were more largely male. MIT has found that a gender shift can increase revenue by 41%.

That's another way of saying that closing the gender gap could improve America's GDP by up to 10% by 2030.

This is a terrific recruitment campaign, not just for GE but for all engineering-based industry.