Girls play with dolls, and boys play with cars, that’s the stereotype that we all got as a child growing up in the nineties right? How grateful am I that my parents didn’t believe in any of that, and that instead I grew up with a mixture of dolls, science sets and looking through my dad’s anatomy books.
I enjoyed science through school, and took my A levels with the intention of studying medicine. But, results day didn’t really go too well for me, and after a bit of adjusting, I came to the University of Lincoln to study Biomedical Science. From then on my love of science grew. I loved research, threw myself into practical classes, and really felt like a career in STEM was for me. I even transferred this energy into a Master’s degree at the University, looking at cancer and how to stop it spreading.
Throughout my degree, I began to notice differences between women and men in STEM subjects. For example, although at A-levels many girls participate in STEM subjects, the uptake into similar courses at higher education and into the workplace is still small. When Donna Strickland was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2018, I was shocked that only 53 women had won Nobel Prizes, in comparison to 866 men. It seemed that women were being overlooked in STEM subjects, and when I questioned this I was met with “you shouldn’t focus on whether science is done by men or women, only if it’s done by a good scientist”. If this were so true, then why were so many brilliant female scientists being overlooked, even though there were “good scientists”? Even in my masters, I was using a cancer cell line from a young black woman from the 1960’s, Henrietta Lacks, who was reduced to just being known as “HeLa”, even though her cells have helped scientific research for decades, even being used in the development of polio vaccines. I wanted women in STEM to have a voice, which only inspired me further to pursue the career I was passionate about, and to encourage others too.
The percentage of female graduates with core STEM degrees is steadily growing however, women still only make up 26% of the figure, and only 22% of women make up the STEM workforce. This shows that some work needs to be done to encourage women to both study these subjects, and transition into the workforce.
This is something that I aim to do as part of my job at the University. I am a lab technician in the School of Life Sciences, and I am fortunate to interact with students from the University, young children from local schools and sixth form students on work experience. I aim to instil a passion in them for STEM, and encourage anyone who feels like it is a man’s world to think otherwise. As a technician, I get the chance to be involved in many different areas of work, and my passion for science has just grown.
We still have a long way to go to reach equality in STEM, however, I believe that future generations have the power to push for this. STEM is definitely no longer just a man’s world, after all, all Watson and Crick discovered was Rosalind Franklin’s notes.
This blog was featured on the University of Lincoln's Women in Work Society website.
Comments