Realising Stuff is Sooo 2016: 2017 Is The Year of Resilience

Marie Curie, ed most known for her research into radioactivity; Rosalind Franklin, treat the chemist who famously contributed to the discovery of the structure of DNA; Hedy Lamarr, the actress and inventor who developed the very technology which allows us to have wireless communication today and Dorothy Hodgkin, the scientist who used X-ray crystallography to determine the structures of insulin, penicillin and vitamin B12 – all  incredible, historic women in science and technology whose efforts have benefited the world in ways that cannot even be put into words.

Perhaps educators, writers and critics have taken this too literally though, for it is all too uncommon to find the names of these remarkable women in our school textbooks, in articles or even on the Nobel Prize awards list. In fact the number of women to have won a Nobel Prize for a science is just 19. For men in science, this is 642.

Looking at these figures, it’s easy to see why women like Chien-Shiung Wu and Ada Lovelace barely get a mention; if we do not acknowledge the successes and triumphs of women in science with prestigious awards like the Nobel Prize, how can we ever expect to share their stories with children and teenagers around the world?

Education is the only way we can solve this blatant disregard for the respect and dignity that these scientists deserve – it starts in school. I’ve learnt about wireless communication, radio waves, DNA replication, X-ray imaging, global warming and titrations, but I am yet to hear about the women behind the important discoveries that often make these fields so plausible. Watson and Crick, Meselson and Stahl, Fick and Hardy and Weinberg are all male scientists whose theories, equations and discoveries we study in the AS Biology course that I do at my sixth form. While it’s important to commend and acknowledge the efforts of these academics, I can’t help but feel let down by the syllabus for its lack of cognisance regarding women.

This doesn’t just go as far as emphasising an absence for the respect of women in science. When we fail to educate future generations on their efforts, we install a belief in young girls that science is just “not for them”. As of 2016, women made up just 14.4% of the STEM workforce in the UK, girls make up just around 20% of A Level Physics students, we have the lowest percentage of female engineering professionals in Europe and despite girls dominating undergraduate degrees in Medicine and Veterinary Science, we make up roughly 11.5% of STEM management. We are clearly doing a great disservice to young women who adore science and flourish in their study of it when we fail to promote their advancements and breakthroughs.

I propose that we do better. The teaching of theories and research into fields of science that have been conducted by women must be a necessity in the courses this country offers. We have got to nurture this idea that the study of  science is not gender-specific, but gender-neutral.  Women of colour can be scientists. Teenage girls can be scientists. Elderly women can be scientists.

By opening up this pathway to the next generation, we bring forward a whole host of enthusiastic and dedicated young girls who will thrive (and get those Nobel Prizes).