• Question: is it hard being a female scientist

    Asked by anon-240493 to Tom, Ben, Antoine on 13 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Ben Cropper

      Ben Cropper answered on 13 Mar 2020: last edited 13 Mar 2020 3:05 pm

      You’ve accidentally asked all the male scientists this question! Luckily I have a female scientist (my girlfriend) nearby so I’ll let her answer:

      “I don’t know, it depends where, I think. I don’t feel it (where I work), but I did in high school (she’s Romanian, so this is between when she was 16 and 19). I do sometimes see individual acts of sexism around here, but that doesn’t affect my confidence in myself as a scientist.”

    • Photo: Tom Dally

      Tom Dally answered on 13 Mar 2020: last edited 17 Mar 2020 1:53 pm

      I am not really in a position to answer this question because I am not a female scientist. There is a serious problem with pay at the moment, though, where a lot of UK science employers have been paying women less than men – which needs to be sorted out (in fact, this is one of the reasons why a lot of university academics/research staff are on strike at the moment): https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-04309-8

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