When I was little, we had a fridge that could be easily opened by my two-year-old self. My mother used to always have an open can of tuna in the fridge to prevent me from roaming around and touching things. I used to think that she took advantage of my aversion for the smell of canned tuna in order to keep the yogurts safe. However, as I grew up, I realised that the reason was very much different.

My mother was doing her Brain Science PhD at the time, and she used to take mouse tissues home to store them in the appropriate conditions (in this case, in our fridge). The efforts that go into juggling raising a child and striving for excellence and progress in your career, especially in science, are a common thread that connects most women who desire to pursue a STEM career whilst still wanting to form a family.

I have spoken to Professor Evelyn Telfer and Dr Nezha Benabdallah, two women in STEM leadership positions, about their perspectives on how the landscape for being a woman in science has improved, the importance of female role models and whether there are still issues that need to be tackled for equality in science.

Evelyn Telfer, Professor of Ovarian Biology, joined the Physiology department of the University of Edinburgh in 1987 to conduct her PhD under Professor Roger Godsen. At the time, there were only three female academics in the department, and “each of those female academics were kind of perceived and viewed as a bit nutty [for doing science] and took on a persona, a cloak almost, to protect them”. A long time has passed since Evelyn joined academia, and things have improved for women ever since. It is a different time now, and there are measures in place to promote equality and diversity in the workplace. When Evelyn got her first lectureship, she was interviewed by a panel of 12 men, no women. This is unthinkable now, as women have progressed past the barrier imposed previously on reaching high leadership roles. However, it is not only inequality in higher roles that Evelyn remembers from the start of her career.

“It was interesting, in 1992 when I came for the interview, I came from the States, and there were three people who were shortlisted. It was me and another women, and a man. And we had one day where we were being shown around and the man was talking to the academic who was showing us around, who was a man, and it was almost like he had the job. It was very revealing, he was interacting with the man in a way that the women wouldn’t have interacted. And that has completely changed now, I don’t think that would happen now.”

Evelyn’s mentors were always men, first her PhD supervisor Professor Rodger Godsen, then her postdoc supervisor Professor John Eppig.

It wasn’t a levelled playground. It wasn’t. Everybody was male.

However, Evelyn has also been marked by big women role models in her field.

“Anne McLaren, she was incredible. One of the early days when I was a PhD student I went to the SSF [Society for the Study of Fertility] meeting; and a big player in that was Anne McLaren who, you know, was a fabulous scientist. And a women called Anne Grete Byskov and a woman called Barbara Weir who was the editor of the Journal of Reproduction and Fertility. And I went to the conference, first conference I went to, in Bristol. They were all there, and they took me under their wing. I was so in awe of them. I think the role model is a really powerful thing to motivate people. You’re always a bit of an outsider, but when you’ve got someone you can resonate with it makes a big, big difference. It gives you the confidence to, you know, speak. I was very fortunate at that time those women were there. And then you saw there was more and more women that were coming through, a big difference.”

I think that the figure of a role model, a mentor, someone you can resonate with is still very relevant and will likely mark your decisions on the path you want to take. For this, there are activities such as visits to primary schools and high schools that allows boys and girls to maybe see that they could fit into the idea of a scientist. Evelyn participates in this, visiting schools to show children what the life of a scientist looks like.

“It’s so important to go to schools to talk to young girls, and boys as well, because their idea of a Professor is an old man. And then they see an old woman [laughs].”

At the other end of the spectrum we have Dr Nezha Benabdallah, who has just established her research group in the IGC focusing on chromatin cancer biology. As with Evelyn, Nezha’s gone on to establish her research group in her alma mater, the University of Edinburgh, after carrying out some postdoctoral work abroad. Unlike Evelyn, Nezha’s mentors were always women: from Professor Wendy Bickmore during her PhD here in the IGC, to Dr Ana Banito for her second postdoc, including Dr Eileen Furlong in her first postdoctoral placement. Nezha’s perspective on the inclusion of women in science, in particular on the presence of big female names, is similar to Evelyn’s: “There was always a strong female presence. Conference line-ups are often mixed. I never really felt challenged [for being a woman] in the UK”. When she moved to Germany for her postdoctoral work, Nezha not only changed countries but also fields; entering the world of cancer, more clinically-driven, and more male.

“The cancer field is way more clinical, more doctors that tend to be male, especially in the institute where I was. All of the senior members are men. In recent years they tried to tackle inequality, so what they did was hire young women PIs, and give even more power imbalance where all the leadership is male and the young PIs are female.”

A balanced mix of profiles, gender, ethnicity and classes is required to achieve the diversity from which any institution, but especially academia, benefits massively. This representation is what is left to the new and next generations as a guide to follow and shoes to fill. If there are “bad vibes” in your workplace, just by seeing if they are only filling up quotas or they actually care about diversity and equal opportunities, you can know if you are going to be a good fit:

“I realised when I was looking for positions coming back, you do look at the departments, and just scrolling down and seeing the faces you see where you might be a fit. I think that’s another way that representation matters: I see people looking like me, or sometimes if it is an old team or young team, and if it is mixed [men and women] it is appreciated.”

After a long conversation on the prejudices of juggling motherhood and work, taking “too little” or “too much” maternal leave, and how career progression differs between men and women; I finished my coffee break with Nezha by asking her if she could think of a new or different way that could work to involve more girls and women in science.

“I think that, if we look at the PhD year, we’re doing good in recruiting and attracting [women], I think the problem is retaining. It’s no secret, I think it is stable jobs [laughs]. Good pay, career prospects, stable jobs, you know. We people like stability, men and women, but maybe women a bit more for, I don’t know, maternal leave. I think there is a switch that is created at some point, where the women disappear and the men numbers increase. […] I’ve seen cases where friends do their PhD together and moving to the next position, and the men just go ‘oh, I’ve done a bit of this and that, I’m going to apply for this position’ even though, you know, they don’t fully fill the criteria; and the woman is looking for something where she ticks all the boxes, and finding something more low-key. So even though they both have PhDs from the same institute, the first jobs have a big gap between them. And then naturally the man starts to have a more important role and can’t escape very easily. So by the time they have kids, it’s the woman that takes it [the responsibility].”

In my case, as a very naïve first year PhD student, I feel that my path has been much simpler just for the fact that there are women who have walked it previously so that we, the new generations, can have it easier.

To all my role models: Mum, my school biology teacher Marta López, Johanne Grosbois, who taught me how to be a good scientist; Evelyn Telfer, who serendipitously appeared in my life when she got assigned as my personal tutor in the first year as an undergraduate and still wants to have a coffee with me; Karen Thomas, who will have to be my lab mother for four more years; Nezha Benabdallah, who so kindly agreed to be in my Masters thesis committee and will now have to put up with me as long as we are in the same institute; and many more. Thank you for inspiring me. I would not be who I am now, personally or academically, without your support and encouragement.

And to all the women to come, I hope you finally get to play in that levelled playground.

Striving for a levelled playground / Institute of Genetics and Cancer by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0

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