Growing up with a scientist for a father my family dinner discussions often revolved around advances in medicine, astronomy and neuroscience. So, it never occurred to me as a young girl that my interest in maths or science wasn’t “normal”.
As a female cardiovascular disease researcher and passionate supporter of women in science, I was thrilled to see Quantum Physicist Michelle Simmons named 2018 Australian of the Year a couple of weeks ago. As I believe having strong role models and mentors is key for girls and women to pursue science in school, university and at the workplace.
Unfortunately, it’s still the case that only 16 per cent of Australians qualified in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are women. So, there is far more work to be done to encourage young women to consider a career a STEM field as an option for them and as something they might enjoy.
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I left my stem career midway through as I wanted to reduce my hours further and would have liked to work school hours in the future. I also wanted to send my child to a community kindergarten program and would have been unable to do so as I didn't have any help for pickups from their grandparents or father. I was very very lucky to be part time (not school hours though and on call weekends) but I had been there for years and had a great manager. Very few stem jobs are flexible, have an option of working school hours or an opt out of shift work. I know of several other women in varying fields who have left stem jobs as they don't have help from grandparents to look after their children when they get called into work or help with school holidays, drop offs and pick ups and care during shift work. These women also had husbands with very demanding jobs (who were much better paid) that were unable to help out (men need flexible jobs too). I would not discourage anyone from a Stem career but flexible options are very limited in my experience.