A science talk-show on a crucial issue: Women in Science

Thursday January 24^th was a very warm day at the McGill Faculty Club. The British Consulate-General in Montreal invited Fellows of the Royal Society of the UK and of the Royal Society of Canada to discuss their experiences as women scientist. Together with Ariane Lucas, our Public Affairs Officer, we were thrilled to organise this event.

When Victoria Kaspi gave us the idea of the theme, we thought that this would appeal to a large audience, and we were right! It was so successful we had to open a waiting list and unfortunately, we couldn’t fit everyone in. Our moderator Antonia Maioni did a great job in making everyone at ease, it was like we were in a living room with long time friends!

The generosity, honesty and vision shared by the panelists were tremendous and I would like to thank them all sincerely.

To give you a flavour of the event, I have invited Mario Rivero Huguet to write a blog. Mario is not only our guest blogger, he is our next Science and Innovation Officer in Montreal, replacing me from mid-February while I take maternity leave.

Indeed, maternity was a hot topic covered at the event and having a good program for maternity leave is certainly a crucial incentive to support women’s scientific careers!

 Now from Mario…

The -28 degree temperature in Montreal didn’t prove to be reason enough to stay warm at home and miss participating in the Women in Science event. More than 120 attendees mingled and eagerly exchanged experiences with four talented panellists alongside other prominent women scientists in the audience (see photos here).

During the event, four world renowned Canadian women scientists highlighted the importance of key elements to reach your dream passion, such as curiosity, luck, serendipity, stubbornness, passion, competitiveness, self-confidence, and a willingness to take risks.

The intrinsic relationship between them will aid future generations of women scientists answering the question: Is it worth to take the risk?

Emeritus Professor Jane Stewart mentioned how critical curiosity, luck and opportunity were in shaping her career, particularly when she deciding on her vocation. She shared how valuable her family models were in her professional life – notably from her uncle and a cousin.

Professor Victoria Kaspi pointed out that “she is so passionate about her work and loves it so much that cannot believe she is actually being paid for doing it”. Dr. Brenda Milner added “You have to love it and badly want it”.

The four panelists agreed a crucial component in a woman’s scientific career and that is to obtain support at different levels. In high school and through university you need constant support from your family and friends (including from your partner, your family, household aids (e.g., nannies, cleaning if you can afford them) both in the early stages of your professional path and beyond.

“Women, don’t be shy to use the support systems available around you, get as much help as you can and don’t feel bad about it”, Dr Rima Rozen stressed. She also emphasised the need for women to learn to speak up and promote themselves, and as well the society problem of women not equally recognized as men are – at least in the academic setting.

Currently in Canada, women outnumber men at undergraduate and master’s levels in terms of student enrolment in University. Unfortunately, this achievement has not been reflected at the level of full professor where the percentage of women at the top is low with high differences between humanities and social sciences, and engineering, physics, and computational sciences.

Dr Rozen and Professor Kaspi both agree on the importance of finding balance in life saying all things are important and they wouldn’t take any of them away in order to be a happier scientist. You wear many hats (i.e. professional, mother, etc.) and it can be difficult to balance on a daily basis.

Institutional change is much needed concerning schedule flexibility, promotion patterns, and distribution of tasks. Particularly in academia the link between tenure track positions and the biological clock needs to be considered seriously. Echoing in this regard it is essential to women to sensitize all colleagues about female discrimination and lack of access to equal opportunities.

Relationship between male and female colleagues is not a problem. They all found a great sense of  camaraderie among colleagues. Acknowledging, while they are all highly competitive it’s not a gender-based issue.