A lack of women in science

[00:00.40] There's an old riddle used by psychologists which shows the gender bias people have when it comes to the types of jobs men and women do.

[00:10.23] Let's see if you can do it: A father and son are in an accident. The father dies.

[00:17.93] The surgeon refuses to operate on the injured boy saying, "The boy is my son." Can you explain?

[00:27.49] According to research done in 2012 by Mikaela Wapman and Deborah Belle at the University of Boston, only 14% of those surveyed were able to imagine that a surgeon could be a woman.

[00:42.37] Stereotypes about who should do what type of job are mirrored in the makeup of the workforce.

[00:49.01] For example, the BBC recently reported that only 10% of UK engineers are women.

[00:57.24] That's the lowest in Europe, where most other countries put the figure at around 20%. That’s still only a fifth.

[01:06.81] And it’s not just engineering either.

[01:09.20] In August 2017, Prof Polly Arnold of Edinburgh University found that only 10% of the top jobs in Scottish science, technology, engineering and mathematics are held by women.

[01:26.99] So why is it that women don't go into scientific jobs?

[01:31.77] Sophie, a girl from a school in Hertfordshire, England, who studied engineering at secondary school, says, "It starts at a young age… girls are put in a corner with a doll while boys play with trucks and cars."

[01:47.45] There's also the lack of female role models.

[01:50.37] “I don’t think they get as much visibility as they deserve,” says Priyanka Dhopade, one of the Women’s Engineering Society top 50 under-35 women engineers.

[02:02.32] She says that it would make a huge difference for young girls to have someone to look up to and say ‘I want to be like her.’

[02:12.15] Regardless of their lack of visibility, a number of pioneering women have paved the way to amazing discoveries.

[02:19.85] Let us not forget Marie Curie, whose groundbreaking work made her the first Nobel Prize winner in two different fields: physics and chemistry.

[02:31.81] There's Rajaa Cherkaoui El Moursli, who overcame any number of cultural prejudices to play a key role in the discovery of the Higgs-Boson particle.

[02:43.49] And Soyeon Yi, who became the first South Korean astronaut in 2008, and who hoped her success would inspire more women.

[02:56.24] Quite clearly, women have made momentous contributions to science, technology and engineering.

[03:03.94] If these achievements were more celebrated, it may encourage girls and young women to consider science as their future career.

[03:14.30] And as more women start to do these jobs, more people might instantly recognise that the surgeon in the riddle is a woman.