Question: Why do you think the ratio at the moment of women and men in physics , is so uneven ?

Katharine Schofield answered on 17 Nov 2011:

That’s a good question. I think in the past women have been put off science just because society perceived it to be a male domain. I heard an interview with Jocelyn Bell Burnell a few weeks ago – when she went to uni she was the *only* woman in her year, and she used to get wolfwhistled at when she came into lectures. Can you imagine? She had to have amazing determination to push herself forward and become one of the most respected physicists of her generation. Thankfully things are a lot better now on that front, and certainly I never experienced any discrimination on the grounds of my gender. I was very lucky that I had female role models all the way through school and university, and I had a lot of encouragment and support.

Once you get to research and university academics the ratio gets a little bit worse as you move up in seniority. I think the reasons there are a bit different. The career path in research requires a lot of dedication, and certainly in the early stages, involves doing a few short term research assistant posts of maybe 2-3 years each before you (hopefully) find a permanent position. This comes at just the time when you start thinking about whether you want to have children, and juggling the two can be tricky. But again, I think things are getting better on this front.

I believe that it is extremely important to have a good balance of male/female scientists (and indeed in any other career), the subject will be richer for it. Don’t ever let it put you off, if that is what you decide you want to do!