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Meet the STEMinists inspiring future generations of women to change the world

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“We are all born scientists,” says Professor Dame Anne Glover, biologist and academic. All children have a natural curiosity, she says – girls as much as boys – and women must be inspired to seek out science if they are to discover a life-long career of exploration. “Science was just excitement and curiosity. When I was younger, it’s all I ever wanted to do, and it’s been a fantastic career. It’s this curiosity we must nurture as young girls and boys grow older.” But the world desperately needs more women scientists, says Glover. Decades of initiatives to encourage women into science, technology, engineering and maths have reaped only meagre rewards to date. This imbalance is something companies like L’Oréal Groupe is working to confront, including via the long-running L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards, which provides monetary grants for outstanding young women scientists.

A L’Oréal survey1 conducted earlier this year (2023) of girls and boys aged 10 to 16 explores why gender inequality in STEM remains a critical challenge. It identified that girls experience a drop in confidence in science and maths subjects aged 11 to 13 years: a trend not seen in boys. In addition, only 23 per cent of girls in school years six to eight say that science and maths ‘comes naturally’ to them. Alongside seeing this confidence low as girls embark on secondary education – and despite showing a strong interest in science (85 per cent in year six and seven) – as they progress through secondary school the survey found that their engagement and love for science and maths subjects declines by nearly half: 44 per cent year six to 23 per cent year 10). This sharp decline comes at a critical age when young students are about to choose GCSE subjects – seeing girls potentially face their first hurdle into STEM education and careers as early as 11 years old. The findings come at a time when women still only make up less than a third (29.4 per cent) of the UK STEM workforce, and recognition of women’s scientific achievements continues to be rare; with less than four per cent of Nobel Prizes for science having ever been awarded to women.2

Numbers that don’t add up

More than eight in 10 girls show a strong interest in science in school years six and seven. But despite this interest, girls experience a drop in confidence in science and maths subjects between the ages of 11 to 13 – a trend not seen in boys

L’Oréal / YouGov

Government Equalities Office 2020

Women make up less than a third (29.4 per cent) of the UK’s science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) workforce

HESA / STEM women

Women account for 26 per cent of graduates in core STEM subjects, but comprise just 16 per cent of graduates in engineering and technology and also in computer science.

Seeing real women thriving in their careers in science is one of the most powerful ways of inspiring young people, says Glover. L’Oréal’s survey shows that relatable role models working in science or maths can give girls a powerful confidence boost.

It falls upon the industry to support girls’ entry into science as a profession, says television presenter AJ Odudu who teamed up with L’Oréal Groupe in the UK to create a film looking at the STEM gender imbalance. For how else will they see the wide range of possible careers on offer and imagine they belong? Self-belief is the magic ingredient, Odudu says, that lifts girls’ visions of what they can achieve. As a child, she was inspired to see her older sister become an engineer against the odds. “That taught me not to be daunted by [professional] titles,” she says, “and what people expect of you.” When a college mentor dampened Odudu’s own ambition to become a television presenter, her mother stepped in. “My mum has always had a way to conjure up confidence and inspiration. She said: ‘It’s gonna be hard, you have to work really hard but you can do it’. But to my teachers and peer groups it was an impossible feat – that this little working class girl from Blackburn was going to move to London and make it big. Whether as a TV presenter or embarking on a STEM career as an engineer, the Odudu sisters show what can be achieved by women when they are inspired and can see a route into the industry.

Inspirational women

Recognising talent

Role models are crucial in the quest to empower girls lacking the confidence to pursue careers in STEM – science, engineering, technology or maths

L’Oréal Groupe and UNESCO have worked together for 25 years to support women scientists, and this year there was plenty of inspirational talent on show at the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards, where a jury, led by Glover, brought together the shortlisted finalists and named the winners of the in the UK and Ireland. “All candidates for the L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science awards are fantastic, relatable role models – rising stars that girls can look at and think, ‘I want to be like them’,” says Glover. “They have creativity and tremendous ambition.” This year’s shortlist revealed a range of groundbreaking work and showcased the scope of scientific research – from investigations into the earliest days of the universe through seeking cures for disease to the potential of biotechnology to alleviate greenhouse gas emissions. All nominees are highly ambitious, says Glover, and five winners each received a monetary grant to support their work.

Young women are on the rise in STEM subjects

The number of female students taking STEM A-Levels has risen by 31 per cent between 2010 and 2019 [UK Govt]. The number of young women taking A-Level maths and further maths has risen by 2.8 per cent and 3.9 per cent. And between 2011 and 2020, the number of women starting STEM degrees rose by 50.1 per cent in the UK. “Women have played a crucial role in science throughout history,” says Katherine Mathieson, director of the Royal Institution [Ri].

Computer scientist Dr Tanya Shreedhar, on this year’s L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards shortlist, knows first hand the power of inspirational women. Nasa’s first female astronaut of Indian origin – Kalpana Chawla – came from her home town, and Shreedhar studied at the same university. “I felt, in my own way, I’m going to follow her,” she says. Now a researcher at the University of Edinburgh, she spent the day at the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science awards, at London’s Royal Society, rubbing shoulders with her fellow shortlisted women. “It’s been thrilling,” she says. “I feel as if I spent the day with rock stars.” Working in the University of Edinburgh’s Department of Informatics, Shreedhar’s research focuses on networks and systems, including wireless and mobile, and she relishes tackling problems in cloud computing and emerging internet applications. “I work on making the internet faster,” she says. Computer science, she adds, can feel like “a big boys’ club”, with a dearth of female colleagues, so awards such as these build confidence and professional networks, which are essential for women to progress. “Science has changed my outlook, changed me as a person,” she says. “It’s a great career. You get to answer the most complex questions that are out there, work on issues that affect so many people, and you have the flexibility to work anywhere.” Winners can use the money how they wish – on childcare for instance, and this flexibility is critical for early-stage career researchers who may have a young family. “It’s exactly what young women scientists require to fashion their independent research careers,” says Glover.

Dr Sophie Nixon, an environmental microbiologist at the University of Manchester and 2023 L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science award-winner, says the most demanding years of a science research career tend to coincide with the child-bearing years, when women need all the support they can get. She plans to use her grant to continue her biotechnology research to see how micro-organisms could be harnessed to help store carbon dioxide or convert it into useful materials. If the greenhouse gas can effectively be harnessed rather than disposed of, this could contribute to a more effective circular economy, she says. “The reason CO2 is such a problem is it’s very resistant to change. But in principle biology is more efficient at changing it than any chemical or physical means.” She eventually aims to build a successful research group that straddles both fundamental and applied research, one that “turns those insights into applications towards important goals such as net zero”. Change within science has been slow, and too few women occupy senior roles, she says. “Since I’ve had funding [from fellowships], I feel I now have much more bandwidth to build my future. It felt for a few years as if I was fire-fighting to stay in the game.”

The recognition and prestige bestowed by the awards are helpful, says Dr Virginia Howick, an entomologist and research fellow at the University of Glasgow, who is studying the parasite transmission of malaria in mosquitoes at a molecular level. There are 70 mosquito species which can transmit the disease, she says. “Every case of malaria begins with a bite from an infected mosquito. The goal of my work is to understand the interactions between the parasite that causes malaria and these mosquitoes to identify potential transmission blocking targets… I want to understand the genomic and molecular basis of the interactions between parasite and mosquito in order to understand patterns of global variation and in parasite transmission.”

Recognition and reward

No need for impostor syndrome

Although too-often overlooked and undervalued in the historical record, women have achieved great advances in science over the centuries, from the physicist Marie Curie through to chemist Rosalind Franklin and computer pioneer Grace Hopper. Today, women studying science and maths perceive the biggest career barriers to be lack of experience, stiff competition and a lack of confidence. Six in 10 said they’d experienced impostor syndrome (White Paper STEM Women, stemwomen.com, April 2023). But as the STEM Women report points out, studying and working in science and technology may push you out of your comfort zone when exploring new concepts – this is normal. Where there are gender imbalances, impostor syndrome is more prevalent.

Women, she believes, are better represented in life sciences than other areas of science and maths. “But having as many women out there as possible giving their perspective is important – recognition at these events gives you a platform, and that’s really helpful.” Without visible role models such as the For Women in Science fellowship winners such as Nixon and Howick, many young people will feel a science career is out of their league. “[The awards] are a vital support,” says Glover. “They make these inspiring young women visible to everyone and that’s crucially important.” If girls’ confidence falters before they get this far, they risk opting out of science too early and this, as the statistics show, plays out further down the line.

Not all careers will end in academic research, but opportunities in science and technology are far broader than girls and young women realise. “You just have to be really interested,” says Glover – “and work hard.” In the UK the L’Oréal Young Scientist Centre at the Royal Institution, which was founded in 2009, offers young people aged seven to 18 and their teachers the chance to experiment and explore the worlds of science and technology outside the classroom. The girls are often inspired by the female science presenters they meet, says Katherine Mathieson, director of the Ri. A supportive and informed adult can make a difference in encouraging girls and women to choose science, she adds. This gender imbalance is stubborn, says Mathieson, but don’t blame women for it, she adds – the underlying causes stem from a range of wider attitudes and cultures, as well as life stages that women encounter when choosing to start a family. “We wring our hands in the UK about the gender split, but it’s not inevitable,” says Mathieson. “It can be different… We are making progress. We need young people to see that scientists are all kinds of different people and that what they are working on is real and tangible – it’s not just something done by others.” More women in science will boost the UK’s pool of talent, says Glover – it’s in everyone’s interests to support them. “If you want to do the best research, if you want to solve the hardest problems, you need the best minds, and the best minds include female minds.”

Inspired by science

The L’Oréal Young Scientist Centre workshop gives students the chance to become a scientist for the day. They are given the freedom to test their ideas by designing creative experiments, in much the same way as professional research scientists do. With access to advanced technology and experiments outside of the normal school curriculum, the experience can ignite a passion for scientific discovery and encourage curiosity-driven learning. Here, three girls who attended a workshop share their science thoughts while at the Ri for the day:

"Science is the way we understand our world, which means we can solve problems like climate change. I’m thinking of a science-based career, possibly as a researcher or a neuroscientist. My favourite science is biology, because I think we should learn more about life and what makes us who we are, before we can live the best life that we have." "Science is my favourite subject – I think it’s really important to learn about the world around you, and how things work… We have science all around us – most of us probably wouldn’t be alive if we didn’t have science, medicine and technology. If you learn about the things around you then you appreciate them. I definitely want to go to college and university and study science."

“It’s good to do experiments in person to solidify what you’ve already learned. I like all the sciences, but I really like biology, because dissections are really fun.”

Just as industry has a responsibility to nurture and support young people, male colleagues could also support their female counterparts, says Glover – to the benefit of everyone. “Men can promote the visibility of women. It’s unfair to put the onus on women all the time. Men benefit hugely by having a diverse workplace.” While not every woman who studies science will go on to a research career, everyone must feel they have some skin in the game and feel involved. In centuries past, women were more engaged in science than we might believe, says Mathieson. Paintings show women frequently attending talks at the institute at the Ri, which was founded 220 years ago to promote science. “You can’t develop science in a silo,” she says. The complex problems we face today require imagination and innovation, says Mathieson. “Science matters for society. It’s how we’ll solve major challenges around the climate crisis, major transmissible illnesses, social justice, and future energy, to name a few. We can be problem-solving about this – let’s use all our ingenuity and resources, everything we can – to build the future that we want.”

Why a collective response benefits all

Don’t leave it all to women, says Glover, chair of the jury for the L’Oréal-Unesco For Women in Science awards. Men can prove powerful allies at work – by demanding better female representation at conferences, and within all rungs of business, and by supporting and mentoring women in their careers. “We need to do all we can as a society to make sure that we enable a positive, welcoming workplace to support young women to be able to contribute to science and research,” says Glover.

By Helena Pozniak

Amber Mciver, year 10

Fiona Li, year 10

Eve Spearman-Walters, year 9

Biologist and academic Professor Dame Anne Glover is an advocate for women scientists

TV presenter AJ Odudu has created a film highlighting the STEM gender imbalance

Computer scientist Dr Tanya Shreedhar (a 2023 finalist) is working on making the internet faster

Science can provide the answers to some of life’s most complex questions

Dr Sophie Nixon is an environmental microbiologist at the University of Manchester

Dr Virginia Howick is an entomologist and research fellow at the University of Glasgow

Katherine Mathieson, director of the Ri, says the gender imbalance in STEM is stubborn

Young women must be mentored and supported in science and research careers

1 All figures, unless otherwise stated, are from YouGov Plc. The effective sample size was 1970 children in Years 6-11 (UK excluding Scotland) and P6 to S4(Scotland): 497 males and 1473 females. Fieldwork was undertaken between the 17th - 23rd of March 2023. The survey was carried out online. The figures are unweighted and representative of children aged 10-16 excluding those in school Year 12, who were not part of the study.2 Government Equalities Office 2020; UNESCO Science Report 2021

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