Harper’s postulates

Bringing gender into focus

As well as bringing into focus the scientific process in a very public way, the global pandemic has shone a light on many societal inequalities, including gender discrimination. One example of this has been academic journal submissions: despite an overall increase in submissions to life science journals during 2020, the number from female first authors began to decline in March and continued to fall in April and May.1

I’m putting this article together a few days before International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021. The UN’s description of this day states:

‘Over the past 15 years, the global community has made a lot of effort in inspiring and engaging women and girls in science. Yet women and girls continue to be excluded from participating fully in science.

‘At present, less than 30% of researchers worldwide are women. According to UNESCO data (2014 – 2016), only around 30% of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Globally, female students’ enrolment is particularly low in ICT (3%), natural science, mathematics and statistics (5%) and in engineering, manufacturing and construction (8%).

‘Long-standing biases and gender stereotypes are steering girls and women away from science-related fields. As in the real world, the world on screen reflects similar biases— the 2015 Gender Bias Without Borders study by the Geena Davis Institute showed that of the onscreen characters with an identifiable STEM job, only 12% were women’.

Lucy Harper

The role of representation is important in breaking down barriers and here at the Society we hold Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the heart of what we do.

https://sfam.org.uk/knowledge/policy/equality-diversity-

and-inclusion-ed-i.html.

Of the members who responded to our end-of-year survey in December 2020, the gender split was 53%:47% male: female. This, and the current gender balance of the SfAM Executive Committee (EC) (50%:50% male:female), are both an improvement on the gender balance of the EC announced in early 2019 (62%:38% male:female). This reflects, in part, the impact of the positive steps we’ve taken to place Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the Society’s core.

Scientific progress, such as the development of vaccines, needs great minds and the gender identity, race, sexuality or ability of the body that supports that mind must not matter. There is still work to do and we will continue to learn and develop our Equality, Diversion and Inclusion work, but for now I’m proud of the work the Society is doing to welcome all applied microbiologists into the SfAMily.

1 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/pandemiclockdown-holding-back-female-academics-datashow?utm_source=hootsuite&utm_medium=linkedin&utm_ campaign=general&utm_term=digital%20science