X Close

Chemistry Department Blog

Home

Chemistry Department Events, Activiities, Outreach & Enthusiasm

Menu

Women in Science: CPS Talk 19/01/15

By Penny Carmichael, on 26 January 2015

– Article by Stephen Leach

10940584_960979540579767_3855753424821402462_n

SELF BELIEF. HARDWORK. NO REGRETS. GIVE BACK. OWN YOUR STYLE. BALANCE. PATIENCE*. LAUGHTER. Just another day in the office?

The second CPS lecture of the term was given by former President of the RSC Prof Lesley Yellowlees. She had no qualms about giving a motivational talk and was qualified to do so. The encouragement on offer would benefit representatives across the whole gender spectrum BUT the take home message was:

“make the right improvements for everyone and there will be a disproportionate benefit in favour of women.”

What’s going on? The problem is the lack of female academics in STEM subjects, (STEM industries show the same pattern). There is a 92% – 8% split in favour of men in the number of professorships in STEM subjects in the UK, which is made even more startling when we note that at undergraduate level there is roughly a 50/50 split (for chemistry). In physics, engineering and computer science, there are too few female undergraduates to start with, compounding the problem further down the line. Even when the numbers are balanced in undergraduate courses, during the years of postgraduate education there is a serious decline in the number of women who opt to stay in STEM academia, the question is; why is this happening and what are the right improvements to make?

As more and more careers require STEM educations, more students in general will need to be encouraged to take scientific subjects. Obviously girls in school need to be assured that it is a feasible and exciting career path to follow.

Some of the possible reasons that women may avoid careers in STEM academia are unsociable working hours and the macho-ism of a male dominated work place. I think it’s fair to say that these things could also put off men, but as noted previously, the under-represented gender will be more sensitive to these pressures. The concept of unconscious bias was raised; this is the idea that there are functions in the brains of men and women that favour men. ‘Unconscious’ bias on top of plain sexism which tips the balance. The damning evidence came from a study where a large number of employers, equally male and female, where given some CV’s. Some employers were given John’s CV some were given Jennifer’s CV. The trick was that John and Jennifer weren’t real people and had identical CV’s except for their name and its implied gender. Low and behold John was given more jobs than Jennifer by both male and female employers. What’s that about? Our speaker said she found this depressing and didn’t dwell on it, from what I could tell, she would’ve had a better CV than Jennifer and John anyway.

Prof. Yellowlees stressed that it is the environment that needs to develop, essentially putting the onus on the employer; more flexibility in working hours, better mentoring and support and better ways to facilitate these things. Universities are not short of cash these days, they need the imagination and motivation to make changes and that requires the right group of individuals in positions of power.

Patience*. This was not given on the list of motivational slogans. It originally said ‘put up with difficult colleagues’. I thought ‘patience’ was an acceptable substitute. Difficult colleagues would put a downer on the motivational vibe.

This subject is too big for me to tie up, Prof. Yellowlees is working hard to bring on the change, the talk was encouraging but she needs others to lend a hand. She wants to hear from you if you have any ideas that could help.  You’ll find her at Edinburgh University.

I’ll end by saying that Hamley’s Toy Shop has scrapped its gender apartheid. Toys are toys, for any of the genders. They should be picked without the guiding influence of pink or blue. Same with jobs.

Leave a Reply