• Question: What would you say the percentage of women is in your work place

    Asked by Charlotte to Alice, Bose, Christian, Emma, Steve on 10 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Alice Harpole

      Alice Harpole answered on 10 Mar 2016:


      In my research group (the gravity group at the University of Southampton), I’d say about a third of the PhDs and post docs are women. However, once you get to the more senior positions (lecturers and professors), out of about 10 people, there’s only one woman. There’s a similar percentage of female researchers in the rest of the maths department.

      In theoretical physics, and particularly in computational physics, there is a real lack of women – I hope that I can stay in this field to help change this!

    • Photo: Steve Marsden

      Steve Marsden answered on 10 Mar 2016:


      It’s similar in the University of Manchester as to what Alice describes in Southampton. The ratio is becoming more and more even, but there’s still room for improvement.

      The ratio was far more uneven in the past, which is one of the reasons there is a larger gap among professors. It’s likely that as the current PhD students work their way up the ranks, the ratio will move up with them.

    • Photo: Christian Killow

      Christian Killow answered on 10 Mar 2016:


      The first answer is: too small a percentage. Probably around 20%. We are working hard to address this, because there is no reason why it shouldn’t be 50%. In fact science is worse off because of this imbalance – the most productive teams are the most diverse.

      So why don’t more females become scientists? I think the decision process happens in the school years, and you should all, no matter who you are, consider following a scientific career path. It’s not for everyone, but your gender has nothing to do with that decision!

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