Science Day

25 March 2024
th

Women in science
Discussion
1. Which subjects are you best at?
2. Which subjects do you think should be compulsory?
3. Some people believe that you are either an 'Arts' person or a
'Science' person. Do you agree?
4. Which subjects would you associate with those categories?
5. Is this statement true for you?
6. Why do you think people have this idea?
Read the paragraph. Which facts do you find most surprising?

According to the campaigning group, WISE (women in science and engineering), in

the UK, only 12.8% of jobs in STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) are
held by women. Similarly, the proportion of boys studying science at school leaving
age is still much higher than girls, especially Physics, where it’s about 78%. This
continues at university, where 52% of male undergraduates take a science degree,
compared with 40% of women. The situation is not dissimilar in the United States,
where only 1/5 of physics degrees are awarded to women. But why is this?

Make a list of possible reasons why there are far fewer women studying and working
in science than men.
 Women need more
flexible hours for
Female scientists childcare
earn less than male
scientists Stereotyping.
Scientists are shown
in films as being
Why do fewer men
women study or
work in science?

Women are judged

Women under-value by their looks
their own skills Female scientists get
fewer opportunities to
travel
 Discussion
Which of the jobs below are typically done by men, or typically done by women?
Are there any (good) reasons for this?

Dental Car mechanics Childcare Roofers (people

hygienists workers who mend
roofs)
Hairdressers Receptionists Primary school Painters and
teachers decorators
A video about science
Look at this list. Which of these things would you expect to see in a video promoting science to women
and girls?

1. A microscope
2. High heeled shoes
3. A man in a white coat
4. A lipstick
5. Experiments
6. Women laughing
7. Sunglasses
8. Safety goggles
9. Science textbooks
10. Pictures of famous scientists
11. A laboratory
12. Someone blowing a kiss
After watching the video, discuss these
questions in pairs
1. What is your opinion of this video?
2. How effective do you think it might be in encouraging girls and
women to take up science? Why?
3. What is the slogan? How effective is it?
Dr. Jessica Wade
Dr. Jess Wade is a physicist working in the Blackett Laboratory at Imperial
College in London. After finishing school, she went on to study Art and Design
in London and then completed a Master of Science degree in Physics at
Imperial college. She continued to study there, becoming a Doctor of Physics
in 2016.
What does she research? Dr Wade does research into plastic electronics and
at the moment she is investigating LEDs (Light Emitting Diodes), which are
lights used in things like mobile phone displays. What else does she do? She
also works with various organisations to increase gender equality in STEM
subjects. She has criticised some campaigns designed to encourage girls into
science, because she says they are not scientific and their success cannot be
measured, and some campaigns promote the idea of women only being
interested in which chemicals are used to make lipstick.
 Dr. Jessica Wade
How does she try to increase gender equality in STEM?
One of the approaches she has taken is to use Wikipedia in order to raise
awareness of successful female academics. Only 17% of biographies on
Wikipedia are about women, and Jess wants to try to increase the amount of
information about women to promote female role models in the STEM sector.
Last year she created over 450 Wikipedia biographies of women and other
minorities.
What awards has she won? Jess has won various awards for her contributions
to science and her work on diversity and inclusion. In December 2018, She
was included in the Journal Nature's 10 people who mattered in science, and
she also got an 'honourable mention' from Wikipedia's founder for her work
writing about under-represented scientists and engineers on Wikipedia.