Week of Women: Women in Science

As a child, I never thought I was going to become a scientist. My story does not start with a major epiphany of looking up at the stars and realizing I was going to be an astrophysicist. Luckily for me I had an older brother who had an incredible affinity for math and science, so naturally I followed suit in choosing all of the subjects he took in high school. I remember a friend of mine asked why I was taking all of the difficult courses and my response was – because my brother did of course! To be honest, it didn’t seem like the best argument at the time, and from the look on my friend’s face, she didn’t think so either. But looking back I realize that this was a key turning point in my journey to becoming a scientist and I am incredibly grateful that I had a role model back then. I often wonder how my life would be different if I didn’t have my brother to emulate, because as it turned out – I love science.

It ends up, I’m not the only one. Women around the globe are an invaluable part of the scientific landscape. But this is nothing new. From the beginning of time women have made ground-breaking discoveries that have significantly changed the course of science. And perhaps more importantly, paved the way for the generations who followed. For example, the recent and monumental discovery by American scientist Jennifer Doudna of CRISPR/CAS9, an easy way to edit an organisms DNA, would not have been possible were it not for the extraordinary work performed by Rosalind Franklin, a British biophysicist, who made major contributions to the understanding of DNA in the early 1900’s.

But paving the way by women scientists was not an easy one. Take the above example – Rosalind Franklin – even though her work was an integral part of the Nobel-winning 1953 hypothesis of Crick and Watson’s structure of DNA, her contribution was not widely recognized until the 1990’s. Fast forward to today, and women are still facing major challenges within the field. While women in developed countries like the US and UK make up approximately half of the national workforce, earn more college and graduate degrees than men, and according to certain estimates make up the largest single economic force in the world – the gender gap in science remains.

Including women in the field of science is more than just ensuring a balanced ratio of sexes in the workplace. It extends far beyond that. Involving qualified women can enrich creativity, provide a different perspective, and offer insight into problem solving, thus further propelling innovation forward. Certainly we could take a leaf out of the corporate book where studies have shown repeatedly that companies who have a larger percentage of women in leadership positions ensures outperformance of competitors on every measure of profitability. And so it is imperative that every effort is made to recruit and maintain women in science.

While great strides are being made in this regard, one of the most important components of this effort is ensuring that young girls and beyond have ample role models. I consider myself fortunate to have had my brother as my role model. And in return, my hope is that I may inspire and inform others about science. Luckily, my position as the Senior Science and Innovation Advisor for the British Embassy in the US, places me in a unique position to advocate for science across both sides of the Atlantic. But perhaps even more importantly, approximately 60% of the UK science representatives in the US are female. And we work diligently to ensure that women are well represented in all projects we undertake. While we recognize that the road ahead for women in science may still have its challenges, when it comes to our future generation of girls looking up at the stars – our hope is that the sky will be the limit.