• Question: was it hard to become a female scientist and when would you say you found an interest in science?

    Asked by natraphael190102 to Rowena, Nicola, Kate on 13 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      It was hard work to get the grades but not because I’m female! Mostly hard because I’m not so good at exams, I loved every minute of the journey to get where I am today, and I think the interest for me was sparked when I was very young – probably on a visit to the science museum when I was 5 or 6.

    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      It worries me that people obsess about women being underrepresented in science – it just makes us feel we don’t belong there. Nobody ever linked my gender to my interest in science when I was first interested in year 7 so it never occurred to me. At undergraduate level there are as many women as men. It is only amongst senior lecturers there is a difference and the difference gets smaller every year 🙂

    • Photo: Nicola Rogers

      Nicola Rogers answered on 15 Mar 2014:

      It was not, no – I have always been good at science and that is all that matters – Chemistry is pretty much 50:50 m:f now at undergraduate University level, and it’s not too bad at PhD level -you do find that as you go up the career ladder there are fewer and fewer women, so you have to get used to working in a male-dominated environment – but I have never found this difficult. The difficulties arise as you get older because if you stay in academia it takes several years to secure your permanent job – so you need to move around with lots of short contracts – and this tends to me at an age when you want to settle down and have children… BUT – you can make it work and you can mix your work and life to suit you if you try hard enough

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