Q: What were your most significant personal experiences that prompted you to write your book ‘Not just for the boys: why we need more women in science’?
A: Although I went to university many years ago, it has been depressing to see that the number of girls studying Physics has increased so little, and hardly at all in the last decade or so.
“During my career I have too often been the only woman in the room, the only woman put on some committee or other and had too many people express surprise that I, a woman, am a physicist. It is a ridiculous waste of talent to let this situation persist for another fifty years.”
Q: How optimistic are you that educational institutions and policy makers are taking seriously the removal of barriers to the promotion of women to senior positions in STEM?
A: Institutions certainly play lip service to this, but there can be significant differences between policies in educational institutions and actual implementation. I suspect this is often true in businesses too.
“Additionally, we still have an environment which favours certain styles of behaviour – e.g. being more focussed on grant income than supporting students, for instance – which is a stereotypically male way of doing things.”
There are subtle and not-so-subtle ways in which certain, not necessarily ideal behaviours are rewarded. As for policymakers, I don’t think they are particularly interested in this in the abstract.
Q: In your book, you write that gendered perceptions of being a scientist have their foundations in many cases in the home and in the early years of education. Do you have a wish list to fix this?
A: Probably the easiest place to start would be with teacher training. I don’t think teachers are actively encouraged to think about the problems of stereotypes and often inadvertently propagate them in the way they interact with children in the classroom – or indeed earlier in nurseries.
“Girls should be encouraged to build things and boys to play with dolls and play out being nurses. Otherwise, we will continue to see gendered professions.”
The media and our screens also have a crucial role to play in encouraging all children to believe all options are open to them. The current situation is as bad for boys as for girls. Our whole culture has to recognize that pushing children into the pink or blue aisles (figuratively as well as literally) is not healthy for society.
Q: What would be the main gains for society in having more equal representation of gender (and diversity in general) across STEM careers?
A: We are losing talent by not ensuring all who want to pursue the STEM subjects are encouraged to do so. This means there are shortages in some technical areas where there is a crying need, and we lose innovation opportunities which is also bad for the economy.
Thank you to Dame Athene for taking the time to answer our questions.
Dame Athene Donald will be giving her talk – Not just for the boys: why we need more women in science – at Friends’ Meeting House, Manchester, on Thursday 14 November.
