The segment filmed a day prior to the UN’s International Day of Women and Girls In Science also features: Jessica Philips, a DPhil student in the Department of Zoology; Laurel Edmunds a Senior Research Fellow at the Radcliffe Department of Medicine; and Dr Holly Reeve from the Department of Chemistry.
During the interview, filmed in the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory in the Department of Chemistry, Sonia said: “The number of women (in science) is not at par with the number of men and I think there are a lot of reasons behind it, a lot of cultural reasons, as well as a lot of academic and societal pressures as such, which prevent women from going to the top.”
All the women interviewed acknowledged that gender balance was not an issue at the DPhil or Postdoc levels but remains a real problem in more senior academic roles.
Laurel Edmunds argued that a women’s decision to have children is still creating issues around career progression. She said: “one or two (researchers) are still being told it’s like death to their career if they have children.”
The piece ends by mentioning the Athena SWAN (Scientific Women’s Academic Network) accreditation scheme that is helping UK universities, including here at Oxford and the Dunn School, to promote gender equality and address the structural issues standing in the way of senior level career progression for female researchers.