Not just for the boys: why we need more women in science

Pioneering physicist Professor Dame Athene Donald wrote her book not simply for those practicing science, male or female, but for the wider public, educationalists and policy-makers.

Despite it being many years since the formal barriers to women pursuing the STEM subjects (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) being removed, and there being many more women entering universities around the world to study them, still there are fewer and fewer women working in these areas as they move up the career ladder.

In Biology, for instance, the numbers starting a university course in the discipline may well be dominated by women, but by later career stages the numbers are barely better than in Athene’s own subject of Physics, where (in England) still less than 25% of the A Level cohort are girls.

Some of the reasons for the dearth of women are subtle, but many are not. Somehow society is still stuck in a time warp, where women are generally expected not to get their hands dirty on a construction site or in labouring at a lab bench. This is despite many recent examples – something particularly noticeable during the Covid pandemic, where the role of women in developing vaccines and contributing to public health was so prominent – indicating just how old-fashioned these views are. The problems start early in life, when school, parents and the wider world of media all too often stereotype what are girls’ and boy’s subjects and correspondingly suitable career aspirations.

It is arguably too easy to say the problems lie simply in the fact that women want families, although too often that excuse is rolled out. The reality is, almost from birth, children receive messages steering them in particular directions. This can be as bad for boys (too often deterred from subjects such as Psychology and Languages) as for girls, who feel computing or engineering are not for them. Policymakers do not seem to worry about this in the context of school inspections or teacher training.

Dame Athene wants the next generation of would-be female scientists not to continue to face the same obstacles. She firmly believes that society will be the stronger for it if we welcome these women into the scientific world; diversity improves outcomes, as business has begun to recognize. It is time for our laboratories and industries to do the same.

Don’t miss this inspiring and important talk by this multi-award-winning female scientist.

About the Speaker:

Athene Donald is a soft matter physicist who has worked closely at the interface with biology. Her pioneering work in this interdisciplinary field led to her becoming Founding Chair of the Institute of Physics’ Biological Physics group. She is the author of nearly 300 papers and author/editor of several books in the field.

Athene was elected to the Royal Society in 1999, appointed DBE for services to Physics in the 2010 Birthday Honours, and has Honorary Degrees from more than a dozen universities including the University of Manchester. She won the 2009 L’Oreal/UNESCO Laureate for Europe, a prize which propelled her into the public domain, with appearances on Desert Island Discs and Woman’s Hour. She is now retired from the University of Cambridge, where she was a professor, and also served as Master of Churchill College from 2014-24.

From 2010-14 she served as the University of Cambridge’s first gender equality champion and has written much – both in mainstream media and on her personal blog – on the subject of women in science. This is based in part on her own experiences as the first woman professor in Cambridge in any of the Physical Sciences.

Host or Publisher The Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society