Very Interesting – July-August 2019

PHOTOS: JOHNNY MILLAR, GETTY

DR JESS WADE

@jesswade

FIND OUT MORE

Here are some of the excellent resources

mentioned by our panel:

WOMEN’S ENGINEERING

SOCIETY

Supports and inspires women

in engineering and science.

wes.org.uk

HOUR OF CODE

One-hour coding activities to

encourage people of any ability to

get involved in computer science.

hourofcode.com

1752 GROUP

Research and lobby group

working to end sexual

misconduct in higher education.

1752group.com

LET TOYS BE TOYS

Campaign to stop toys being

promoted as only suitable for

girls or boys.

lettoysbetoys.org.uk

PHYSICIST AT IMPERIAL.

COLLEGE LONDON. IN 2018,.

SHE WON THE DAPHNE.

JACKSON PRIZE FROM THE.

INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS.

atmosphere, an

environment where

sometimes there’ll just be a

few people. You may be alone

with your supervisor quite

often, and there’s nothing you

can do about it. This person

will be older, you’ll generally

be very junior, and your entire

career can depend on them.

It’s no different from a

Hollywood casting room in

that sense. It’s an environment

ripe for abuse, really.

Jess There’s an Athena Swan

Award that UK universities

can compete for. It’s kind of a

gender equality kitemark. A

bunch of senior female

academics got together and

said, “We’re going to make an

award scheme where grant

money will depend on your

ability to get one of these

awards, and you’ll get bronze,

silver or gold depending on

your commitment to

improving the scientific

community for everyone

working there. For

undergraduates, postgrads,

professors, everyone.”

Whether you’re a woman, or a

person of colour, or an

LGBTQ+ scientist, all of these

add up, and this makes you

much more vulnerable to

these positions of power. We

go on and on about science’s

lack of women, but it’s because

they’re leaving. Whether it’s a

huge sexual harassment case,

or it’s something big that’s

happened, or it’s just these

constant knocks to you

because of your gender.

Suzie These things don’t

change overnight. And you

know, bringing in a policy now

is helpful. But we have to

recognise that it takes years of

work to change this kind of

thing. It doesn’t just change in

a heartbeat. 7

[email protected]

Women In Science

“We go on about science’s

lack of women, but it’s

because they’re leaving.”

Just before we interviewed Jess,

she’d launched a fundraising

campaign to get a copy of Angela

Saini’s Inferior into every secondary

school in the UK. In just 12 days

she achieved her goal.