Encouraging women to take up a career in science
Prof Mayuri Napagoda looks at the gender gap in STEM
The image of women in ancient society was generally negative. They were kept down and considered intellectually and physically inferior to men. While the Greek philosopher Aristotle stated that women were incapable of abstract reasoning, in ancient India, particularly in the later Vedic Age and medieval times, women had been egregiously mistreated. At the time of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, women were belittled in the Western world. According to French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau (17121778), women needed to rely on men as they were less rational than men and they should not have the same level of education as men. A Sri Lankan proverb says, a woman’s wisdom only extends to the length of a spoon handle.
The Greek poet Hesiod in 700 BC introduced the story of Pandora and her box in the poem ‘Works and Days’. It described the “pain and evil” releasing into the world due to a woman’s curiosity. While a few places described woman’s curiosity in negative terms, there were many instances to prove otherwise. Brilliant, dedicated, and determined women like Mary Anning, Marie Curie, Dorothy Crowfoot, Rosalind Franklin, Lise Meitner, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, are among the many who paved the way for the advancement of science and technology. Nevertheless, even today some cultural biases impede the education of young girls and keep women away from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
Despite many obstacles, women engaged in different disciplines of science at different levels throughout history. The fields expand from natural sciences such as astronomy, biology, chemistry, and physics to social sciences like sociology, and psychology and then to formal sciences like mathematics, computer science as well as engineering and medicine. For example, Merit Ptah, (around 2700-2500 BCE), was thought to be a female chief physician of ancient Egypt. Even though the role of men was much more prominent in natural and health sciences in ancient Greece, the mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria emerged as a symbol of learning and science at the latter stages of the Roman Empire. Hypatia was considered the first woman to make a substantial contribution to the development of mathematics.
Moving on to the Middle Ages, convents turned into places for nourishing many women to become considerable scholars. The Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (Saint Hildegard) was a famous medical writer and practitioner in the 12th century while many other women had also practised medicine and herbalism in many regions around the globe.
Although a higher study in the early modern period (ca. 14001800) was confined to those from wealthy families, new opportunities were available for some accomplished women. The Italian physicist Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti (1711-1778) was the first woman to have a doctorate in science and also became the first woman in the world to hold a professorship. Caroline Lucretia Herschel and Mary Somerville were two other famous women scientists of this era who had been elected as honorary members of the Royal Astronomical Society.
In the 19th century, there were many campaigns in Europe and the United States for higher education for women. Women demanded the right to the same level of education that men were entitled to. There were instances where females had to disguise themselves as men to access university education. One example was James Barry (named Margaret Anne at birth and was known as a female in childhood), a British military surgeon who had to live as a man in both public and private life, to get enrolled at university, and pursue a career as a surgeon.
The establishment of women’s colleges, in the United States and the United Kingdom in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, opened new avenues for women scientists. Some women practised as individual scientists, while many others benefited from the “Harem effect”; the practice of male scientists employing groups of women research assistants.
During this period many women made significant contributions to science, but unfortunately, some of them did not receive the due recognition at the right time.
For example, Lise Meitner who worked at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute of Chemistry in Berlin played a key role in the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. However, the Nobel Prize committee overlooked her contribution. The Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1944 was awarded to Lise’s long-time collaborator Otto Hahn.
Similarly, Rosalind Franklin’s contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were largely unrecognised during her lifetime. Franklin took the critical X-ray image that enabled James Watson and Francis Crick to elucidate the double helix structure of the DNA molecule. Franklin died in 1958. Watson and Francis Crick received the 1962 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine.
As a postgraduate student, the British astronomer Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The discovery eventually earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1974 to her thesis adviser Antony Hewish and the head of the department, Sir Martin Ryle; however, Burnell was not among the recipients.
Women whose scientific contribution has been obscured without due recognition but earned Nobel Prizes for their male contemporaries
Marie Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. She won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel for the discovery of the radiation phenomena. She won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for her discovery of radium and polonium and became the only woman to win multiple Nobel Prizes. Curie’s daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, shared the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935
with her husband Frédéric JoliotCurie for the synthesis of new radioactive elements and became the only mother-daughter duo to be awarded Nobel Prizes.
Since its inception in 1901, 12 women have won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine; 8 women in Chemistry; and 4 women the Nobel Prize in Physics. Carolyn R Bertozzi was the most recent woman scientist in the list with the 2022 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The discoveries of these and other women scientists had made a significant impact on scientific progress today and were equally impressive to the contribution of their male contemporaries.
Women now make up around 40% of the workforce in many countries. Despite the high rate of women graduates from higher education institutes, the gender gap in science persists at large. According to US Census Bureau statistics, women in STEM made up 7% of that workforce in 1970, and it improved to 23% by 1990. Unfortunately, the rise essentially stagnated at that point. Two decades later, in 2011, it was found that women made up 26% of the science workforce, and according to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) data, today less than 30% of the world’s researchers are women. The majority of them engaged in research and industry based on biology and life sciences, health services, and the pharmaceutical industry, whereas women are still under-represented in sciences like physics, information communications technology (ICT), and engineering. Could it really be the lack of competence in women that keeps them away from science, particularly the high-end, math-intensive fields such as computer science and engineering?
The European project ‘Information for a choice: empowering young women through learning for scientific and technological career paths’ identified some factors associated with the under-representation of women in the workforce related to STEM careers. Social factors, such as starting a family, financial considerations, workplace environment, and discrimination, are some common obstacles seen in all countries that deter women from pursuing careers in STEM. Also, many young girls have a muchdistorted picture of certain professions and career paths. For example, many believe that engineering professions are associated with masculinity. These girls lack access to positive information and particularly role models; the women who succeeded in overcoming stereotypes and breaking through the glass ceiling.
The necessity of various innovative actions to motivate young schoolgirls towards STEM careers has been emphasised in the above European project. Initiatives that combine information with hands-on experience could be highly successful in this respect. Summer camps are believed to exert a positive influence in increasing the number of female students in the science and technological faculties. The role of universities and technical colleges particularly offering their laboratories for practical experience, motivating their students to serve as role models, and contributing to the empowerment of young girls to study in a domain that traditionally classified as masculine has been proposed. These approaches would be helpful to reduce the number of talented young girls who are going to slip through the cracks when their choices are restricted by gender stereotypes, cultural barriers, or misinformation.
The United Nations proclaimed February 11 of each year to be celebrated as International Day of Women and Girls in Science. This Day is an opportunity to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. Since the demand for STEM skills is continuously growing around the world, girls have to receive all the necessary information to make appropriate choices as well as opportunities to further develop their talents without the constraints often imposed by gender. This will allow them to pursue their dreams, have successful careers and achieve their fullest potential in life.