Question: was it and is it hard to work in a male dominated field

Graeme Barker answered on 11 Mar 2022:

I’ll preface this answer by pointing out that I’m not a woman, and you should absolutely pay more attention to the others responding to your question – I’m only answering as I do some research alongside social scientists into diversity and inclusion in chemistry.

I think it’s true to say that the situation was pretty bad in the past – STEM was heavily male-dominated, and could be hard for women, particularly those trying to start a family in a time period where they would be expected to handle most of the childcare. The situation is becoming a lot better though, and there is greatly increased awareness of structural inequality and discrimination. When I was a student, more than three quarters of my graduating class (in 2007) were women, and around half of our current PhD students are women. As young, female chemists progress through their careers, I expect the gender balance in more senior roles to slowly equalise as well. There are also numerous schemes set up to speed up the implementation of equality in chemistry as well, for example by funding summer lab placements by female students, fellowship schemes to support women and ethnic minority academics, and others to support researchers returning to science after a career break (most often to start a family). Some of the major research funders will also only give money to universities who show evidence that they are taking active steps to address inequalities as well.