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.
Laura Taylor.
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