Thirty-six days after the beginning of the 2020 school year in Brazil, the Rio de Janeiro state education system began an unprecedented disruptive period due to the COVID-19 crisis, which abruptly affected general educational activities, particularly chemistry teaching. An adaptation to a new paradigm of remote teaching and massive use of online educational technology alternatives was tentatively performed, generating lessons for improving implemented actions. Educational institutions prepared independent teaching strategies to provide remote chemistry classes for a total of nearly 397,700 students who were able to begin or continue chemistry classes. This “snapshot” of a daily-life reality faced by professionals engaged in chemistry education in Rio de Janeiro’s schools identified the following factors that negatively affected the implemented actions: the applied television broadcaster essentially covered only the heavily urbanized region, leaving out rural and impoverished areas; a significant absence of adequate technological equipment (e.g., smartphones, tablets, notebooks) for students; pedagogical limitations of instructors, without sufficient training to use online technologies; and inherent limitations of video classes, which do not adequately substitute for practical learning in chemistry laboratories. Strategy improvements are imperative, considering that students face the challenge of increasingly being protagonists for the organization and management of the teaching–learning process.

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In December 2019, the institutional affirmative action "Onde elas estaõ?" ("Where are they?") was launched for the mitigation of gender inequality in the STEM disciplines in Brazil, coincidentally in the same period which the first reports of the COVID-19 pandemic appeared in the city of Wuhan, China. Unfortunately, when evaluating the initiative through different approaches belonging to the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Respect (DEIR) theories, the presence of implicit biases and the invisibility of underrepresented minorities was observed. Approximately 77.5% of the female scientists participating in the initiative were white and belonging to the wealthiest regions (75%) and with the greatest contribution to Brazil's Gross Domestic Product (GDP). On the other hand, Black, Indigenous, and Asian female chemists were not identified, nor were female chemists belonging to the North Region (Brazilian Amazon Region). The DEIR practice "Onde elas estaõ?" has an important role in the dissemination of highly qualified Brazilian female chemists and provides an important source of engagement and sense of community for future generations of female students to avoid abandoning STEM subjects. However, adjustments are needed that take into account greater Diversity, Inclusion, Equity, and Respect.