The College Historical Society (the Hist) conversation room was filled with students yesterday evening for a Burke Panel in conjunction with Trinity Women in STEM. With a panel consisting of six women from various fields, the discussion was entitled Women At The Forefront of STEM in Ireland.
Prof Sylvia Draper, a chemistry lecturer in Trinity, was the first to speak. She referred to personal experiences she has had whilst working in STEM, including condescending remarks from male colleagues. But she focused on the very real issue of the sacrifices researchers and academics have to make if they want to devote time to outreach and inclusion efforts: “Being active in teaching and outreach, as an academic, they’re valued but not nearly as much as your publication record, the funding you bring in or your number of citations.” She acknowledged that there is a bias present in these fields but also the importance of tackling it because “diversity is key in all walks of life, not just STEM”.
The second speaker was Rachel Harding who is currently completing a PhD in Dublin Institute of Technology and is researching ways to improve the gender balance in STEM by providing more spatial awareness resources to girls. Speaking about her current research, funded by Intel and the Irish Research Council, she explained that she is collating data on spatial awareness abilities among students of various ages and genders and is also starting research into the spatial awareness levels of primary school teachers and investigating whether this would require extra training in order to improve the standard of mathematics teaching.
The Chair of Women in Technology and Science (WITS), Julie Hogan, was next to speak. She spoke about the importance of role models for encouraging female students into STEM, referring to WITS’s mentoring programs. “We don’t mean role models just like Nobel Prize winners. We want the everyday software engineers, the scientists. We don’t walk around wearing lab coats so it’s hard to get that visibility.” Hogan explained how her impression of the problem of women in STEM has changed as she’s progressed through her career, noting that as a student she would have never attended an event like the one she was speaking at because she didn’t see it as a real problem until she saw more and more of her female colleagues dropping out of the field due to family commitments and disillusionment. She acknowledged that although WITS are aiming to tackle this cultural bias, their work relies on the goodwill of volunteers and doesn’t cover the whole country.
The fourth speaker was Jane Durnin, a New York native. She spoke at length about her experience as a programmer in various companies. Her journey into STEM began when she was working in an insurance company after finishing school at 17, and following a year there, took the aptitude test to be considered for the programming department – one of the first women to be allowed to do so.
Paula Butler, a technical manager at Deloitte, was the fifth speaker. The majority of her speaking time was dedicated to the condemnation of gender quotas, referring to her own experience of feeling as though her gender was a factor in why she was hired. “I’ve worked in the industry for 10 years and I’ve seen this shift, from inequality for women in the sector to this opposite side, where is almost biased towards women. If you’re the best person for the job, you should get the job and not have to bother with quotas at all.” She finished by saying that more work should be done to encourage women into the field while still in school, rather than introducing gender quotas.
The final speaker was Trinity Prof Louise Bradley, began by disagreeing with the points Butler had made. “The glass ceiling hasn’t been broken, it’s been raised. Women may be hired more easily but they still don’t make the decisions, still don’t have the power.” She referred to the various lengths women in Trinity have gone to through down the years, for basic requests such as membership of debating societies or being allowed to eat in the Dining Hall. She encouraged those present not to be disillusioned, saying that STEM is “probably the most meritocracy based field you can go into”.
The discussion was followed by questions from the audience. Discussions regarding women in STEM can often become pessimistic in outlook, but this panel ensured that the audience took away the message that even though these barriers exist, women should continue to enter and excel in these fields.
