Women in Science: Time for Action (Talk for the Sciences and Development Association 31 March 2021)

 

Scientific Webinar 31 March 2021

Women in Science: An inspiration for Future Generation

Organised by the Sciences and Development Association in partnership with Sultan MoulaySlimane University and the Higher School of Technology of Khenifra

I have experienced academia and science as a student, as an assistant, a PhD student and nowadays, as a staff and a supervisor. I have worked with many male and female researchers and scientists particularly in the African continent but also beyond through my work in the Global Young Academy Women in Science WorkingGroup. 

In this graph, I am considering the “Present” as the Covid era. SO what happened in the past? What were the conditions? 

Science was not a career option for young girls in the past…and that is not decades ago, it the very recent past, almost present. Everything started from girls never playing with science “toys” and dolls never being anything to do with science.

Recently, I was looking at a toy brochure of a well-known toy store. The colour coding of the pages were quite obvious on to which toys are for boys and which for girls (but let me not start with colours for boys and colours for girls here….). Coding and computer games were classified after the boys' categories. A couple of years back, I was almost shocked looking for a gift for a friend’s girl when I found the Barbie Scientist – “Halleluiah” I thought – only to realise that the specific one’s body type was completely different to ALL the other ones on the shelves and the accessories not very appealing to the little girls.

So, to start with…. The science and academic profession has not become appealing to young girls… And to top that the challenges and opportunities of women in science worldwide are common and have become known recently – making the profession not a TOP one for young women, right?

• Salary and opportunity inequities
• Work space challenges – Gender harassment – hostile work environment
• Choice between family and career
• Society that wants women to stay at home
• Lack of rolemodels and mentors
• Work related stress and work life imbalance 

These are problems that women in most professions have been facing for years. But a study by Fathima et al. (2020) that looked at a group of female scientists (mainly in South-East Asia) reported that only 40% of female academics are happy with the way their career has progressed until now. Now if you think at all of the things I mentioned, they all have one thing in common: someone else has done something wrong. The system is wrong, the world is wrong. And we felt that there was nothing we could do for all these years. We, as women in academia and science, felt isolated. Our problems were not significant or so we thought. 

The question that might arise is why then have we joined academia? Why have we done so? and even more logically, why have we stayed in academia and sciences? For me, it is the excitement of new discoveries with our research and the impact we can make on society; it is the feeling of passing knowledge to new generations; the light in students eyes when they understand something I explain to them. I might have decided that I will not be the next Nobel prize winner in Economics but maybe the next one might be in one of my classrooms; I might inspire someone to make a difference and a societal impact - the multiplier effect is real and immense. 

But back to the Past-Present-Future graph, has something changed with the pandemic?

We tend to see that magnifying glass looking towards the virus; what I am trying to propose today is that the Covid-19 IS a magnifying glass that brought out problems such as inequalities in education, poverty and others to the forefront and made them more obvious. The same happened with the working from home and homeschooling in 2020.

Studies such as the ones by Deryugina et al (2020) found that "female academics, particularly mothers, report a disproportionate reduction in time dedicated to research relative to what comparable men and women without children experience. Both men and women reported substantial increases in childcare and housework burdens, but women experienced significantly larger increases than men did".

Was it not expected? Of course, not. In the last few months, a plethora of studies, blogs, reports and others point out the extra pressure on women academics that came on the surface. The question that I asked myself many times during 2020 was if these pressures were because of the institutions or because of the family structures and expectations. In simple words, did our employers change or staying back home, we really observed the lack of support by our partners and other structures? 

But what is the big change that I feel from my side is happening in a post-covid era or if you may, with the next generation of female scientists and academics?

I think our generation found a voice – we organised ourselves – we made an effort to get together, to realise that we are not alone, to see that the challenges are common but also the aspirations are common, the desires for the future are common, the dreaming is common. We have made sure that there are organisations that focus on Women in Science. There are role models such as Prof Amal Amin for example and many others that young girls and women can look up to. We have opened our mouths and vocalised the problems we have and the inequalities we have endured. We have provided evidence of how these have impacted the scientific community overall and not only us, as women. 

The future now is HERE.

We need solutions. We need proposals to make a change. And by we, I mean us in personal perspective and our institutions and our working environments. Remember the external vs internal locus of control???

Proposed policies (as per Reese et al. 2020)

• Support WiS when they start families when in training or beginning of their career
• Provide equal pay and equitable start-up funds
• Support team science in academia and synergistic research
• Maintain options for virtual seminars and conferences (Keep the positives from the pandemic)
• Rethink childcare and childhood education
• Continuous communication channel with emerging researchers

And to close with, personal advice on how I cope in the academic arena and the advice I give to all young and emerging scientists.

·     Take some time NOW already and think or write down why you are where you are. What your purpose is and your excitement for being a scientist and researcher. Do some reflection. It won’t be time wasted, it is time invested. When challenging times come (they will come), go back and re-read it, remind yourself your ultimate purpose. That purpose can be readjusted through the years of course.

·       Have your eyes and ears open for the invisible mentors in your life. Lessons and knowledge can be sourced from everywhere. Don’t assign one mentor in your life and refuse to listen to anyone else. Be open. That said, be selective of the people surrounding you.

·    Stop pursuing the ultimate balance between personal life and work. Let me tell you a secret, nobody achieves it fully that is why all of us discuss it the whole time. We get stressed because we think we can achieve it. There are times, days, weeks, periods in my life that family is a priority and work have to wait and vice versa and that is fine. It is a see-saw – enjoy it.

·       Don’t allow anyone to give you an opportunity BECAUSE you are a woman. Be proud of your work. We are scientists and it just happened that we are women, as one of my mentors have said.

·        Be vocal but respectful about your conditions. Long are the times that respect means being quite or that we should be thankful that we even have a job. Involve yourself in associations and organisation and speak with other women in academia.

·       Make sure you have an amazing support system and also BE the support system to others. Accept the fact that we are not super women (yes yes I know that we are, but lets assume for a second that we are not) and ask for help – it is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength. Let’s normalise it.

·        Don’t feel guilty about being a mother or if you choose NOT being a mother. It is your choice. I chose to be a mother. In a recent book published by GYA on Motherhood in Science my chapter dealt with guilt in my journey as a mother. I waste energy and time in feeling guilty when I am with my kids and when I am not. So, do as I say and not as I do in that topic. Our kids should see that they have the choice to be and do whatever they want when they become adults and the only way to do that is to see US doing so.

 

Be you and I know it is a cliché but be the change you want to see in the world. We have raised our voices now; we have made our challenges known, lets make the difference now.