We must get over the hurdle of so few women having the confidence to put themselves forward
If you look at studies that have been published around communication and conversation, generally, they are pretty consistent in showing that men tend to contribute more in group settings than women. What’s more, studies also show that men are more likely to interrupt women than other men.
This dynamic is not only about the way that we’re brought up and socialised, but confidence also plays a role, too. Certainly, in conference settings, women tend to be more anxious about whether their expertise will be recognised, and internalise whether they even have the expertise to ask a question.
We know that when groups of experts come together, women often state that they feel the need to have a higher threshold of knowledge before they feel confident enough to contribute, and that manifests itself in a whole range of ways. From delivering a teaching lecture to submitting a grant proposal or even interacting with the media, you just have to pick a topic, and
female academics will have a higher bar for themselves before they feel secure enough to step up.
So, how do we counteract this? It all comes down to education, support and visibility.
With STEM there are structural inequalities and barriers, which mean we see lots of women at junior levels, but fewer and fewer as you go up the ladder. For example, there are many more female medical students than male, but as you move up the ranks within areas like clinical medicine or research, there are fewer women in senior roles. Add that to the structural inequalities around childcare and maternity leave, and women may not feel as able to put themselves forward for promotion, leading to a lack of role models.
We do have to tackle problems like imposter syndrome, maternity leave and having fewer women at the top of their field, but providing more female scientists with more communication training and media opportunities is another good place to start.
One of the silver linings of the pandemic has been that we’ve all been able to do more media work from home. The flexibility of doing video calls from our own desks has helped more women be more visible, and that would be a great thing to continue.