This is the
title of an article I found online, in the journal Science (DOI:
10.1126/science.caredit.a1600070). Clearly, there are still issues in terms of
bias against women in science/academia – and I’m sure this is not something
that’s limited to science and academia. The article mentions incidents, and thankfully
I have not experienced anything like that yet, and for the majority of my
university life I have been looked after by female academics. And it is
definitely good that there are schemes to support women in science, such as
Athena Swan.
But here’s a
thought: a study published in 2015 (doi: 10.1073/pnas.1418878112), in which the
authors used hypothetical applicant profiles for an assistant professorship in
various fields, found that in most cases women were favoured over men. So if
there is a higher preference to hire women, why is this not reflected in
reality?
According to
an article in the Guardian (citing an article in New Scientist), this may be
due to the fact that early stages of a research career involves short-term
contract in various places; this coincides with the time when people want to
have children, and the nature of these post-doc. contracts is hardly ideal for
anyone wanting to settle down to start a family. Now, this would equally affect
men as well as women, but further in the article it cites a study showing that
men are more likely to have partners who are willing to stay at home to look
after the kids while women are more likely to be with a fellow scientist. This would
create a situation where women are more likely to have to choose between a
family and their career, and it is a sad thought that capable young scientists
are having to make this choice.
This got me
thinking: is this choice something that women have to face regardless of what
they do? Or is it more difficult in science? Surely there are men out there
that will have to make this choice too? Personally, my main focus for the
future has been a career as I've mentioned in this post. I still feel the say as when I wrote that post; this does not mean that I don’t want to get married
and have a family – is this something unrealistic for me to try and achieve?
I guess it’s
hard for anyone to make these decisions. It took me a long time to think about
what exactly I wanted to do, and it seems like I’ve ended up here without
really thinking too much about what next! Right now, I am happy to be doing
what I’m doing, and somehow it feels like I am where I’m meant to be right now…
Doing this PhD has made me realise my passion for research, and although I have
not really thought too much about what I will do after, my feeling is that it
will involve research in some form or another!