This is a guest post by Chantal Bowman-Boyles, Vice President of Technology Practice at Waggener Edstrom, a worldwide Digital PR agency.

Today, science and technology are still very male dominated sectors. If you ask your friends and relations to name a woman famous for her contribution to science you quickly get, Marie Curie, and maybe Florence Nightingale -- after that we all struggle. And if you ask for names of women who are alive now, and famous for their contribution to science or technology, it doesn't get any easier. Perhaps Martha Lane-Fox, Baroness Susan Greenfield?

Why, when women have had the vote for nearly a hundred years, and have equal access to education and opportunity (at least on the face of it), is this the case?


Recent research by the Resource Centre for women in science, engineering and technology (UKRC) shows that more girls than boys are studying science at GCSE level, however by the time they reach university, the ratio has flipped with men outnumbering women by two to one. So why are women withdrawing? According to academics, the media is partly to blame. By pedalling the stereotypical frumpy geek image and largely using male scientific experts, it is sending out the wrong messages to the next generation of women.

Discrimination still plays far too big a role. You may recall back in 2006 the president of Harvard University, Lawrence Summers was forced to resign partly due to his controversial comments about women having a "different availability of aptitude at the high end" in maths, science and engineering fields. More recently in 2010, female scientists from the Royal Society petitioned the government to fund projects headed by women to help them get ahead as so many experienced sexism at work: the deputy head of Physics, Athene Donald, recalled: "If you are on high-level committees, you'll be asked to make the tea."

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Such boorish behaviour, and blatant discrimination is unfortunately influencing the next generation of minds, so it's little wonder that women are retreating to the arts -- where the things that are considered "feminine" traits are somewhat more valued (although when you consider that JK Rowling deliberately did not use her name on the Harry Potter books -- you see that even in the arts we haven't moved on considerably since George Elliot felt it necessary to use a man's name to sell her novels).

The problems begin at school, where children are exposed to stereotypes and often lack the right female role models. It has nothing to do with their aptitude, or the slightly Nazi'esque belief that the female brain is somehow less inclined to be scientific. A study by the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry suggests that both genetic and environmental factors have a similar effect on science performance for both boys and girls. It also shows that any differences are more "down to attitude rather than aptitude."


And they continue through higher education too. A recent study conducted in the US by Mary Frank Fox, a professor in the School of Public Policy at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Gerhard Sonnert (Harvard) and Irina Nikiforova (Georgia Institute of Technology) found serious issues with the teaching environments at US universities: they "often portray science and engineering as highly competitive, masculine domains." The research concluded that the hostile classroom, lack of self-confidence and limited knowledge of career prospects were all big obstacles for women to overcome. The report recommended that women overall needed a stronger support infrastructure to succeed in science and technology. These findings were also reflective of the average degree results. Generally, women receive 58 percent of all US undergraduate degrees however they only receive a pitiful 21 percent of computer science and 19 percent of engineering degrees.

This situation is similar in the UK.

We know instinctively, and also have the data to prove, that women are more than capable of strong creative thinking, ideas generation, and problem solving, fundamental skillsets for science and technology. And we know that many of them fall away from following science or technology as careers over the course of their education. So what are we going to do about it? How are we going to support them in making career choices that will expand the pool of people interested in and capable of creating new scientific and technological solutions -- things we know are fundamental to our ability to grow our economy?

Education, support and mentoring

I remember, back in the 80s (showing my age here), Maggie Thatcher's "Science Bus" travelling to UK schools completely kitted out with information and careers advice. Designed to encourage young girls to take science O-levels, I was so enthused I even went on to take science A-levels. However thanks to my uninspiring, disinterested, male biology, chemistry and maths teachers, my science career came to a grinding halt post school and I opted to study history at university -- which I'd been lucky enough to be taught by a woman who managed her classroom with sheer force of personality and who because she engaged me and believed in me, inspired me to follow her example.

We have to find ways to encourage and nurture girls and women who show aptitude and inclination for science and technology, and by doing so add to the pool of creative and innovative brains who will build the next generation of companies and ensure Britain's future economic wealth. To attract more women there needs to be significant investment in training, supporting and appointing female science and technology teachers/professors, as well as in finding and promoting more mentors and inspirational role models.


As the government continues to focus its attentions on nurturing entrepreneurs and encouraging women into the board room, it needs change the focus of activity at school level to increase the pipeline of women scientists coming through.

To increase the levels of innovation coming out of the UK, we urgently need more female creative input to refresh and invigorate our inventions. Opportunity is being lost every time a woman drops out of science and opts for a more "socially acceptable" or simply "easier to get on in" career. We, as a society, led by our government, need to take action and start supporting women in science and technology fields at grass roots level. Only then will we get to the point where we're able to name more than one famous female scientist when we're asked.

Image: Sausages / <a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/joesixpac/">Stefano A.</a> / CC BY 2.0