• Question: was it hard, as woman, to enter into the scientific world?

    Asked by to Rowena, Nicola, Kate on 13 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Kate Nicholson

      Kate Nicholson answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      No, not for me. I simply knew what I wanted to do and went for it! Staying in the scientific world in academia can be hard as a woman, especially if you want to take time out to have a family, but we are working hard to eliminate these prejudices. Anywhere that is recognised with an Athena Swan award is guaranteed to be a family friendly workplace, and I know at Durham my boss is leading the campaign to gain that here.

    • Photo: Rowena Fletcher-Wood

      Rowena Fletcher-Wood answered on 13 Mar 2014:

      I agree with Kate. At the stage I am at being female hasn’t influenced my career at all. Chemistry is actually equally popular with men and women at undergraduate level so there is no discrimination at all. It is only as you go up the career ladder you see more men in chemistry but they are gradually getting evened out as more women stay in academia.

      The most difficult part of the careerr path for a woman is the post doc. If you want to stay in academia and redearch after a PhD you do a series of 1-5 year placements working under established academics to prove yourself before you get your own research group. These short term placements are hard if ypu have a partner and especially choldren and is at the age when most people start thinking about children. Sadly a lot of women feel they have to choose between academia and a family, although Athena Swan and other support systems are making this less of a problem and helping to even out the gender balance amongst academics. Alternatively many women continue in science by getting a job rather than researching in a university – where they gt stability and science.

    • Photo: Nicola Rogers

      Nicola Rogers answered on 14 Mar 2014:

      It was not hard for me either to enter the scientific world – I just followed what I was good at. The difficulties arise later on in life when you are trying to think about when to have a family, which means you will need to break from the research, and feel like you will lose touch with the competitive research environment.

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