Very Interesting – July-August 2019

inteVERY

the quest for know

p. 26

ARE WE

READY TO

L EAV E EARTH?

In association wit

SCIENC

WORLD

Setting up a new

permanent home in space

By looking for monster DNA i

Loch Ness

waters,

scientists are going to fi nd

out what’s

down there

CLOSING THE

PAY GAP?

How much we

earn: time to

share

ISSUE^48

JULY/AUG

2019 Price

R49.

| €7.

| £4.

SADC countr

ies: R43,39 (E

xcl. TAX)

p 60

p.

HUNT FOR THE

LOCH NESS

MONS R

monster DNA in

p.

LOCH NESS

MONSTER

In association with

SCIENCE

WORLD

B

ack in the 19th Century, Ada Lovelace carried out pioneering computing work on the Analytical Engine with Charles

Babbage, at a time when few women were schooled in maths and sciences. The aim

of Ada Lovelace Day is to increase the pro le of women in similar careers and to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and

mathematicians. This is important, because there are around 40,000 skilled STEM (science, technology,

engineering and mathematics) jobs left vacant each year in the UK alone. The growing science, engineering and technology

industries are crying out for people with STEM quali cations, yet students appear to not be selecting

these subjects. This is particularly marked among girls, with just 19% choosing two STEM subjects at A-level compared to 33% of boys in the UK.

According to the campaigning body Women Into Science and Engineering (WISE), computing,

further maths and physics at A-level have particularly low proportions of female entrants, at 10%, 28% and 22% respectively.

Women who do continue on to a science-based career therefore end up in a minority, making up just

23% of people in core STEM occupations. Numbers are slowly rising, which is encouraging, but what is keeping young women from choosing STEM subjects

and careers, and why do women have a tougher time reaching the top and staying there?

We talk to four women currently working in STEM about their experiences, the problems faced by

women and girls, and how we can  x the issues.

Girls are not picking as many STEM subjects as boys, while professional female scientists are

dropping out of the  eld. Does science have a problem with women?

7 WORDS: ALICE LIPSCOMBE-SOUTHWELL

IT’SIT’S

TIMETIME

FOR FOR

CHANGCHANGE

PHOTOS: JOHNNY MILLAR

14 48/2019 48/2019 15

Women In Science

PHOTOS: SHUTTERSTOCK

In many parts of the world, women are paid less than men. One solution might be total pay transparency. Can it  x the problem and are we ready to talk about how much we earn?

7 WORDS: MOYA SARNER

THE SCIENCE OF

PAY TRANSPARENCY

T

here is a revolution stirring. It’s taking

shape in of ces, around dinner tables

and in newspaper headlines: people are talking about how much they earn. Keeping a

polite silence around money is such a long-standing cliché

that for some, simply having these conversations cuts to

the core of how we think of ourselves and our society.On 5 March 2018, almost 250

staff of the BBC signed an open letter to director general

Tony Hall, demanding “full pay transparency”. This

followed a review of the broadcaster’s pay, which found that only one-third of

the 96 best-paid employees were women, none of whom

were in the top seven. Then in April 2018, large  rms and

public bodies were required to publish  gures comparing men and women’s average

pay, revealing that 78% of them pay men more.

The BBC staff who signed the letter demanding pay

transparency argue that it constitutes the “fastest,

cheapest and fairest way to begin to tackle unequal pay”,

and that it is the most effective way to uncover pay

discrimination due to race, gender, age or class. The CEOs of those companies

who have adopted the policy – so far low in number but

high in enthusiasm – believe it is an improvement on the way we have always done things.

But what is the evidence? Given we have laboured

(quite literally) under pay secrecy for so long, what

would such a dramatic shift do to our minds?Despite its longevity, there

have been some experiments suggesting that pay secrecy

may be the worst possible policy we could have in the

workplace, for both employers and employees. In one study by Elena

Belogolovsky at Cornell University and Peter

Bamberger at Tel Aviv University, participants were

divided into groups of four and asked to perform a task on a computer. After each

round, one set of groups saw a

bar chart on the screen showing only the amount they

as an individual would be paid for their performance,

and they were forbidden from discussing their remuneration

with others in their group over the monitored email

system – mimicking pay secrecy conditions. Those in the second set of groups,

working under pay transparency conditions, also

saw a second bar chart showing their reward relative

to other participants, and were told their email communications had no

restrictions. After three rounds, the researchers found

that those in the pay secrecy group performed worse and

would be less willing to come back. Further studies by

Belogolovsky and Bamberger found that employees

collaborate more effectively under transparent conditions,

as they are better at assessing the best colleague to

approach for advice, based on knowledge of their salaries.

Belogolovsky says: “In pay-for-performance systems, pay secrecy has a negative

impact on individual task performance and retention

because it weakens the perception that an increase in

performance will be followed by increase in pay.”The evidence seems clear:

secrecy obstructs productivity. But what

happens in a real workplace? Here, the case for

transparency grows more opaque.

35% Below market

64% Below market

83% Below market

45% At market

30% At market

14% At market

21% Above market

6% Above market

3% Above market

35% percent of people who are paid job believe they are paid less than the market average. Women in this above the market average for their

bracket are 18% more likely than men to believe they are underpaid.64% of people who are paid the market average for their job believe they are

paid less than the market average.3% of people who are paid below the market average for their job believe

they are paid above the market average.

Canada 71%

61%

60%

52%

49%

43%

UK

US

France

Switzerland

Germany

Ryanair 72%

54%

24%

16.4%

14%

9.7%

9.3%

JP Morgan

Apple UKImmediate

MediaPublic

sectorOverall

BBCSource: Government Equalities Of ce, 2018 Source:Global Salary Transparency Survey (conducted by Glassdoor) 70% of employersSource: Reward Management Survey 2015 (conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development)

30% of employers

YesNo

GENDER PAY GAP IN SELECTED UK COMPANIES

A CLEAR PROBLEM...

ARE OUR PERCEPTIONS OF PAY ‘FAIRNESS’ ACCURATE?

HOW TRANSPARENT ARE WE NOW? WILL GREATER TRANSPARENCY REDUCE THE GAP?

44 48/2019 48/2019 45

“In a real workplace, the

case for transparency grows

more opaque.”

Culture

this issue

p.

SPACE p.

6 First plant grown on the moon

“Eat your space potatoes, child!”

HEALTH

7 Hope for migraine sufferers

Pigs are on your side

INNOVATION

8 Painting with bacteria

As though the Mona Lisa wasn’t enigmatic

enough...

NATURE

10 Why do elephants have such

wrinkly skin?

Moisturiser is expensive, people

BODY

11 Why does time seem to go faster

as we get older?

Because you can’t see your watch clearly anymore

PSYCHOLOGY

12 What happens in my body when...

I meditate?

Someone steals your copy of Very

Interesting while your eyes are closed

SPACE

13 Is it true that NASA smells

everything before it is sent into space?

Freaks...

NATURE

22 Saharan snow

When meteorological expectations desert you

CULTURE

24 What’s the best way to win at

rock-paper-scissors?

Read this article, then destroy it before your

siblings see it

What’s the (a)

gender with

science?

August is Women’s Month. Cue
uncomfortable discussion about
whether or not highlighting the
achievements of or the limitations
unfairly imposed on women is as
condescending as, well, so much of the
rest of supposedly acceptable behaviour
in patriarchal society.
Regardless of your views on that count,
there is evidence to suggest that fewer
girls than boys are picking STEM
(science, technology, engineering and
mathematics) subjects at school level,
and female science professionals are
dropping out of their respective fields at
a worrying rate.
In our cover feature, It’s time for
change (page 14), the possible reasons
for and ramifications for this are
discussed by a panel of female scientists

• makes sense, don’t you think? – who
  also offer ways forward for the next
  generation of women in science; those
  who will be changing medicine,
  technology, conservation, what and how
  we eat and more in the coming years.
  See pages 70 (plasma physicist Melanie
  Windridge) and 79 (computer scientist
  Sue Black) for interviews with
  contemporary boundary pushers. And
  then consider making your next
  meeting at work appropriately
  uncomfortable with a chat about the
  pay gap between men and women.
  You’re welcome, bosses.

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Bruce Dennill
Editor

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