Where are the women?

There’s a real lack of women representing science – most young adults can’t name a female scientist, and only 11 women feature in the Eureka 100 Science List – where are they all hiding?

A comment from @rpg7twit (aka Richard P Grant) on the @laboratorynews Twitter about my recent blog post Can you name a famous female scientist? got me thinking about the role of women in science and more specifically to try and answer the following question  – is there a female equivalent of Professor Brian Cox?

The post was inspired by research from the Royal Society that showed 88% of 18 to 24 year-olds couldn’t name a famous female scientist. Around 47% couldn’t name a famous male scientist either, which is slightly worrying.

Richard had been to the Eureka Live discussion on the 4th November where the top 100 people in science – as listed in The Times Eureka 100:The Science List – were discussed. From his 140 characters, I gather they were talking about women’s role in science and if there was a female version of our favourite science presenter of the moment.

Now don’t get me wrong – I love Professor Brian Cox and I’m not ashamed to admit I have a geeky crush on him. He’s done wonders for the image of scientists. It probably helps that he kept the musician style – floppy hair and jeans and a t-shirt – and combined it with science, but he’s so passionate about the subjects he’s talking about that he makes you fall in love with science all over again.

When I think of scientists, the image of Doc Brown from Back to the Future always springs to mind – I don’t know why! Actually I do, scientists are often portrayed in films as somewhat eccentric, with crazy hair a la Christopher Lloyd. Most scientists in films and on TV are mad men, and even our own Science Lite mascot is bordering on the crazy scientist, but where are the women?

Are female scientists not taken as seriously as their male counterparts? We know that the likes of Rosalind Franklin, Marie Curie and many others had to fight to be accepted in a male-orientated workplace, but we all know that times have moved on since then, haven’t they?

Perhaps they’re all too busy saving the world and working out a cure for cancer to be on TV, or are they all just camera shy? The one scientist we do see on TV is Alice Roberts – who describes herself as an anatomist, author and broadcaster on her website – albeit on BBC2’s Coast, which doesn’t seem terribly scientific.  A bit more digging and I find that Alice has a PhD in palaeopathology – the study of disease in ancient human remains – and used to work on Channel 4’s Time Team.

Things are looking up, but then I find that Alice isn’t even listed in The Science List. The first female to be listed is Nancy Rothwell, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Manchester in at number 10, followed by Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell at number 15. Just 11 women features in the list – 11 – surely we can do better ladies? (Cox is in at number 24 in case you’re wondering.)

What about the likes of Science is Vital founder Dr Jenny Rohn? Jenny – an American by birth – is a cell biologist from UCL, but also writes science-based novels in her spare time. Surely her work on the campaign and the numerous interviews she must have given show her to be as coherent and passionate scientist as Brian Cox.

Alom Shaha - science teacher and writer - has also asked where the female TV presence is and made his own suggestions. As well as Rohn, he suggests Dr Tara Shears, a research fellow from Liverpool who studied particle physics and works on accelerators like the LHC and the Tetravon; Dr Lucie Green, a solar researcher at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory and Dr Aoife McLysaght, and evolutionary geneticist from Dublin.

I can see this being an argument that could rage on for days, and I’d love to know what you think – find us at www.twitter.com/laboratorynews.