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.

August 2018. It’s my 22nd birthday, me and my mom are traveling from my hometown near Brum up to Lincoln, ready to collect the keys to my new apartment. After a year of depression and unemployment, I'm determined to start my 22nd year with a fresh start!

21 was a complicated age for me: I left university with a first-class honours degree in Media Production, the graduate award for Best Photography Student, and the excitement of hunting for the career I had been working up to for the past five years! A career that I never really wanted. I would go on to spend the rest of the year unemployed, having my heart broken, being rejected for countless jobs and feeling my sense of selfworth deteriorating.

After constant rejections, one was the tipping point for me. Each job or internship rejection prior to this had come with vague and unproductive reasons, and I had been going round in circles with no clue how to break out of this cycle. But then I applied for a media internship with a company I had previous volunteer experience with. I was enthusiastic going in: I was the perfect fit! Volunteer experience within the company, the degree and graduate award to match, and extra curricular experience to back it up! But the reality was, the job wasn’t right for me. 

Unlike previous rejections, this one came with an honest and considerate conversation about my career development, where I currently was, where I was going, and a comment that would change the trajectory of my career: “You know you're an artist right?!” 

All this time I had been trying to suppress the artist that I was, but apparently she was blatantly obvious to everyone around me! I needed to take a step back and look at what I was going to do next. I can't just be an artist right? I’ve got a media degree! Being an artist isn’t something that I ever considered as an option for me. But I knew I was at my happiest when I was making art, and a this point in my life, I really needed some happiness.

The truth is, being an artist was all I had ever known, and all I ever wanted to be. I dropped Fine Art during my A-level’s due to a mix of peer pressure from my ‘friends’, and a lack of education regarding what a career in the arts can look like. But I knew that when I was making art, the world made more sense to me, and I made more sense to the world.

“I’m going to do a masters in fine art… am I making a mistake?!” I remember saying to my best friend.

“No, you're an artist, it makes perfect sense” he replied 

I’d spent so long trying to pursue a career in the media, wanting a job that would allow me to be “creative but corporate”, with the fantasy that working on my art as a hobby would be enough for me. But it never would have been! The creative yet corporate world that I was searching for was soul destroying, nothing aligned with the ethics and worldviews that I held close to my heart, yet I deceived myself into thinking I could temporarily put them aside for the sake of my career.

I want to clarify here that putting aside ethics and worldviews for a career is very different to doing the same for a job, unfortunately most of us will need a job during uni to get us through our degree, and it's not always easy to find one that aligns with your worldviews (I’m a vegan that spent a few months working for a burger company!). But when it comes to your career you should listen to your gut, and if it doesn’t feel right, maybe its not the role for you!

The next few months was a rollercoaster worthy of a coming of age drama. I moved back to Lincoln, to start a subject at masters level that I had suppressed since my GCSE’s, re-connected with past loves such as spoken word poetry, and put all my energy into growing into a happier and healthier version of myself.

And honestly, halfway through the second year of my masters I have never been happier. I’ve just completed an internship with the same company that started this journey. I had spent the year leading up to this position solidifying my position as an artist, exhibiting and performing at any opportunity, working on my confidence and my health. Meaning this time I went into the role confidently knowing that I am an artist, and I am willing to work hard for a career in the arts. 

During my time working at Frequency I saw the preconceived image I had of myself shifting. The expectations that the team had for me were high, but so was their faith in me. I am someone that suffers with anxiety and depression, but those aren't factors that define me, and through this position my confidence and faith in myself grew. Small tasks that would have previously triggered anxiety became an everyday expectation, and with this, the expectations that I held for myself grew.

In the space of a year I’ve gone from someone who was in pursuit of a career she didn't want, in denial about who she was and what she wanted to do; to being confident enough to say that I am going to follow my dreams no matter how hard it is, I want to put my happiness first. 

I’ve learned so much about myself over this past year, but if I can give any advice it is to follow the path that is going to make you happiest (as cheesy as it sounds, follow your heart!). If you’re in your final year of university, or have graduated, and your degree no longer aligns with where you want to go, that's ok! You’ve spent three or more years with that subject, and in that time you've probably grown a lot as a person, so if that means your degree subject doesn’t fit who are anymore, and isn’t pointing you in the direction that you want to go, it's ok to change paths. Take the knowledge that you’ve learned along the way and put it into your passion! 

It's never too late to change your mind!