Women fear fracking because they don’t understand it, says scientist
VAST numbers of women are opposed to fracking because they ‘‘don’t understand’’ and follow their gut instinct rather than the facts, according to a leading female scientist.
Professor Averil Macdonald is the new champion of the shale gas industry, leading a push to persuade women that the process is safe and will benefit Britain’s economy as well as helping it to meet climate change targets.
Research has shown that men are nearly twice as likely to support fracking.
Macdonald, the chairwoman of UK Onshore Oil and Gas and emeritus professor of science engagement at the University of Reading, said she understood why there was a gender gap.
‘‘Frequently the women haven’t had very much in the way of a science education, because they may well have dropped science at 16. That is just a fact,’’ she said.
‘‘Women do tend not to have continued with science. Not only do [they] show more of a concern about fracking, they also know that they don’t know and they don’t understand. They are concerned because they don’t want to be taking [something] on trust. And that’s actually entirely reasonable.’’
Only 31.5 per cent of women believe that shale gas exploration should be allowed in Britain, compared with 58 per cent of men, according to a survey of almost 7000 people by the University of Nottingham.
The research
also
revealed
that women are much less likely than men to know which fossil fuel is produced by fracking. Shale gas was correctly identified by 85 per cent of men but only 65 per cent of women.
Macdonald, who is also a board member of Women in Science and Engineering, which seeks to inspire girls to follow those careers, said women were more likely to form opinions based on ‘‘feel’’ and ‘‘gut reaction’’.
Simply giving them more facts showing that fracking was safe would not change their minds, she said.
‘‘Why are men persuaded? That’s because an awful lot of facts have been put forward,’’ she said. ‘‘[Men] will say, ‘Fair enough, understand’.
‘‘But women, for
whatever
reason, have not been persuaded by the facts. More facts are not going to make any difference. What we have got to do is understand the gut reaction, the feel.’’
Macdonald said that the instinct in women to protect children from threats helped to explain the gap.
‘‘Women are always concerned about threats to their family more than men. We are naturally protective of our children. I would similarly be concerned, but I read the literature and I feel comfortable that I understand.
‘‘What I hope is that I can make the women who are concerned comfortable that the myths they are worried about are myths.’’
She said there were too few women at senior levels in the shale industry, and she would be happy to have a fracking site at the bottom of her garden in Winchester.
‘‘They are beautifully screened. I would rather have that than being overlooked by large numbers of neighbours.’’
There has been no fracking in Britain since the process was temporarily suspended in 2011 after causing minor earthquakes in Lancashire. After fresh fracking applications were rejected this year, the government said that it would intervene if they were being blocked by councils unreasonably.
Green groups are campaigning against fracking by claiming it could contaminate drinking water. Friends of the Earth was this week accused of scaremongering by claiming that sand used in fracking could cause cancer.