Learning from “Lessons in Chemistry”

Helen Rae | Client Partnership Director, International Healthcare Communications | 16 February 2023

February 11 marks the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, providing a moment to reflect on the significant gender gap that still persists in the majority of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. Taking a step back and looking to the past, it’s good to acknowledge that we have come a long way. However, I’m still seething after finishing the glorious 'Lessons in Chemistry', a must-read book by Bonnie Garmus. The injustice suffered by the main character, Elizabeth Zott, as she battles to have her clinical research recognised in the male-dominated scientific community of the 1950s, is excruciating.

Sadly, whilst Zott’s predicament is purely fictional, this story has played out countless times in the real world. Take Rosalind Franklin, for example; her work using X-ray crystallography was instrumental in the discovery of the structure of DNA. Unbeknownst to her, her work was shown to other scientists, namely James Watson and Francis Crick, who later won a Nobel Prize for discovering the structure of DNA. That’s only one story we know of; how many more women had their research stolen and credited to male colleagues, or simply gave up the fight and are consigned to obscurity?

I do feel lucky that, after studying biomedical sciences at university, I stepped into med comms and thrived in an area that provided the opportunity to continue to flex my scientific knowledge in my day-to-day work. Currently working at Precision AQ, I’m fortunate enough to work for a female boss, showing that shattering the glass ceiling is a possibility, and our 20-strong scientific team is 80% women, providing another reason to be hopeful.

But what of the clinical researchers who have followed Rosalind Franklin? Yes, there has been progress, but a lack of women in science still exists today. This starts at a grassroots level with females only making up 35% of the students studying core STEM subjects.¹

For university graduates, it’s even lower, with females making up only 26% of core STEM subjects, although this figure has been steadily increasing over recent years. As you get to the workplace, the number drops again, with females making up 24% of employees in 2019, but this is up from 21% in 2016.¹

Why does all this matter? Well, gender diversity can be crucial to science in 3 ways:

1. Scientific research can be more accurate when sex is considered. Most scientific research does not adequately consider sex or gender as variables, resulting in male results being treated as the norm. It’s clear that whether you’re studying seat belt design or heart medication, for products to be safe and effective, they should be tested on both sexes.
2. Women bring unique perspectives to research and scientific conversation, and diversity adds to the collective intelligence of a research group, enhancing creativity and providing new contexts by which to understand societal aspects of the research.
3. There is a need for more STEM professionals, and women have a clear role to play. As Prof James Stirling, Provost of Imperial College London, stated in Elsevier’s gender report: “With this level of gender imbalance, we are not properly exploiting the UK scientific talent base. If we want more high-quality scientists, I am absolutely convinced that we will find them amongst the female population, and that is why encouraging more young women into STEM and supporting them properly is so vitally important.”

It’s encouraging to see that the need for diversity is being openly recognised. For me, being in a scientific role within med comms in a female-led team is bucking the trend, and it would be great to see this reflected across the scientific field as a whole. What I hope is that, when my daughter reaches the stage when she is deciding on a career path, no barrier exists and the imbalance is consigned to history.

Reference

1. STEM Women. Women in STEM statistics. June 22, 2022. Accessed December 5, 2024.

   https://www.stemwomen.com/women-in-stem-percentages-of-women-in-stem-statistics