IN NUMBERS
30%
The percentage increase in learners
choosing the sciences as matric
subjects at Parktown Girls High School
after an Anglo American-sponsored
Science Centre opened there in 2016.R603,999
The average salary for a chemical
engineer in South Africa, according
to an Adzuna study conducted in
August 2018.35%
The percentage of women in
management or professionally
qualified employment positions in
primary and secondary sectors of
STEM jobs in South Africa.80%
The percentage of jobs that will
require STEM skills from 2020
onwards.1 in 5
The number of South African
students graduating from STEM
courses at university level in 2018.80%
The percentage of the top 10 skills-
scarce occupations in South Africa
that are STEM-related.0 100PHOTO: JOHNNY MILLAR, GETTYfor fellowships, and then
you’re going for that
permanent job. That’s a
critical moment. And so,
possibly, if you then go
part-time, it’s perceived
negatively when you’re going
for that big step. I think
attitudes are changing,
actually, and I think we need
to improve things like flexible
working and job-sharing. I’m
not so special that I can’t
share my job with someone
else!Do you think women tend to suffer
more from a lack of confidence or
put too much pressure on
themselves in school and university?
Angela When I was at school,
in my chemistry class, there
were eight of us, and I was
the only woman. I got the
highest grades, and therewere a lot of boys in that
class well below average. It
never bothered them that
their achievements and
academic levels were below
standard. It really bothered
the girls. When you know
you’re going into an industry
where you’re already going
to face challenges because
you’re in a minority, where
every stereotype message
tells you that things will be
really hard for you, you
think, “Well, then I have to
be brilliant in order to be
able to do that. Because
things are going to be hard
enough for me anyway.”
The boys don’t face the
discrimination or the
barriers or the sexism that
the women do, and the girls
know that. I felt I needed to
be better than everybodyelse to do engineering – a
degree which is so easy to get
into in this country. You
don’t need to be brilliant to
do it, but I felt that you did,
because I was a minority.
Aoife Absolutely. Certainly in
maths, girls underestimate
themselves, so like-for-like
ability, girls and boys will
rate themselves at different
levels from about the age of
10, and it goes down from
there. So you have this
situation where you could
have the same grade, you
could both have an A or a B
at the end of your GCSEs,
and be looking at A-levels,
and the girl is more likely to
think that grade is not good
enough for that step. And the
confidence in your ability is a
big predictor of whether or
not people will go on and do
that subject. We are losing
out on some amazing talent
by not having enough women
going through the system
into these jobs. We are going
to need millions more
engineers by 2025, so we
need to make sure we are
widening the net.Angela But I think we
underestimate the extent of
discrimination within the
industries themselves.
Engineering has been a very
sexist industry for a long time. I
still meet women who tell me
that they, against all advice,
went and got their physics or
engineering degree, and when
they applied for jobs, even
though they did just as well as
everyone else, the boys got
more call-backs. So you do have
to be better. We’re told that you
have to be better. We know
that. And it’s not the girls’ fault
for being underconfident, it’s
the industry’s fault for not
giving them the jobs at equal
rates to men.
Suzie I think, talking about
perceptions, it’s also one of
those things where students
have historically looked at a
physicist and seen middle-
aged white men, and that’s the
perception of what a physicist
is. Often they’re enthusiastic
about physics, and I’ll say,
“Oh, are you going to study
physics? You sound like you
really like it,” and they say,
“Oh, no, I can’t.” I think it’sWomen In Science
“The boys don’t face the
discrimination, the barriers or
the sexism that girls do.”