Bristol women at the forefront of science pt4

Ada Lovelace Day was created to celebrate one of the pioneering women mathematicians.

Born 200 years ago, Ada worked with Charles Babbage on The Analytical Engine, an early predecessor of the modern computer. Her notes inspired Alan Turing to work on the first modern computers in the 1940’s.

All this week Bristol24/7 features just some of the brilliant Bristol women working in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

Today we meet Dr Emily Blackwell a clinical animal behaviourist and the resident expert on Ch4 series ‘Dogs: Their Secret Lives,’ Professor Kathy Cashman who is a world-leading volcanologist, and Dr Seirian Sumner who studies insects and their social behaviour and co-founded Soapbox Science which promotes women scientists.

Dr Emily Blackwell

Can you sum up what you do?

I’m a companion animal behaviour and welfare scientist, which means that I study the behaviour of pets. Increasing our understanding of the development of potentially problematic behaviour such as aggression helps people to live harmoniously alongside animals. I’m also a clinician, so my research informs my clinical work.

I’m passionate about science communication and improving peoples’ relationships with their pets, so as well as working one-to-one with individual owners, I also help to disseminate new developments in animal behaviour through the media, for example as the resident behavioural expert for the Channel 4 series Dogs: Their Secret Lives and on social media via Twitter.

Did anyone inspire you to follow a career in science?

My father was an industrial chemist and always encouraged my interest in science, spending many hours conducting chemistry experiments on the kitchen table!  However my inspiration to enter the field of animal behaviour and welfare was my childhood pet – an English Springer Spaniel called Bella! At school I could hear Bella howling from several fields away when she was home alone and my desire to find out why some dogs display this behaviour when left alone led to my eventual PhD on separation-related behaviour in dogs!

In your view are there any obstacles to women following a career in science, maths, engineering or technology?

Academia is still male-orientated at the top and the long hours culture and competitive working practices alienate many women.

If so, what do you think needs to change to encourage women into the field?

I think that the emphasis on an individual’s publications, citations and research grants over collegiality needs to change. Many of my female postgraduate students tell me that they don’t intend to pursue a career in academia because of the adversarial culture.

Women should also support and champion other women!

What do you think of Ada Lovelace Day? Is it a good way to inspire young women to go into science?

I think that Ada Lovelace Day is a great idea. Highlighting inspirational female role models is a terrific way to show young women that a career in science is possible.

And finally, what reactions do you get when you explain to people what you do?

They usually ask me questions about their pet’s behaviour!

Dr Seirian Sumner

Can you sum up what you do?

I am a behavioural ecologist, with a specific interest in understanding how and why social behaviour evolves. These questions are inspired by the incredible societies of social insects – bees, wasps and ants. Why do they live in societies? What were the key changes in evolution that facilitated the transition from solitary existence to living in a society with 10s to 1000s of other individuals? How does their coordinated division of labour help build stable societies? I use a combination of classical field behavioural experiments and genomic analyses to address these questions.

I do other stuff too: I am passionate about making a difference (however small) in raising awareness about gender inequality in science. I co-founded Soapbox Science, an outreach initiative that aims to simultaneously bring science to the streets and promote the visibility of women in science.

Did anyone inspire you to follow a career in science?

Well it all began with a bird book, which my dad brought back for me from one of his field trips (he was a Geographer).  I was about 10. I got hooked on bird watching, which led naturally onto a general fascination and love of the natural world. By then, my decision was made – what else would I be but a zoologist?

In your view are there any obstacles to women following a career in science, maths, engineering or technology?

It’s clear that girls love science – for example in biological sciences, 60% of undergraduates and postgraduates are women: something starts to happen after that, and at the professorial stage, only 20% of biology professors are women.

Work-life balance priorities can pay a role. But, not all women drop out of science because of caring responsibility. Cultural expectations, stereotype threat, and implicit bias are some of the main obstacles to women progressing in STEM careers. From as young an age as 6 or 7, we picture a scientist as a man. Subtle cultural conditioning means that women are likely to harbour pre-conceived ideas about them being less ‘able’ in science than men, and public surveys confirm that the general public believe this too!

Our culture ingrains in us unconscious bias, that inclines us view women as less able than men in science. To achieve equality in the STEM career community, we need positive action from within academia (e.g. like Athena SWAN), but also a clear strategy on how to tackle the stereotypes and bias that our culture and education and society impose (often unknowingly) on the youngest generation of scientists – school children. Start from the bottom, and work up – it’s going to be a long road, but without treating the cause, we won’t cure the problem.

If so, what do you think needs to change to encourage women into the field?

See above!

What do you think of Ada Lovelace Day? Is it a good way to inspire young women to go into science?

Who’s Ada Lovelace? Even the founder of Ada Lovelace Day didn’t know at first!

I think this is a wonderful initiative: not only is it uniting women around the country in an overt celebrate of women in science, but it’s also ramming home how anonymous the best women scientists remain to this day. Everyone should know who the first computer programmer was! And that it was a woman!

I love the way Ada Lovelace day has grown from one inspirational, brave woman’s idea to an international initiative, that touches all STEM subjects. I don’t think it’s so much going to encourage more women into STEM, but it is certainly likely to help retain them – what more encouragement could a young female scientist need than a nation-wide celebration of the great science that women do. 

And finally, what reactions do you get when you explain to people what you do?

My favourite study species are wasps. It’s often a conversation stopper, once you get past the “how do I kill them” phase. I also get asked why tax payer’s money should fund research into wasps. Fundamental research is the under-belly of the science that supports our societies today – without fundamental, curiosity driven science, we wouldn’t have antibiotics, vaccines, renewable energy…

Professor Kathy Cashman

Can you sum up what you do?

I study volcanoes and ask questions about why they erupt, why the eruptions vary in style, and what are the consequences of different types of eruptive activity. This works takes me to volcanoes around the world, although I also spend a lot of time in the laboratory and working with students.

Did anyone inspire you to follow a career in science?

I come from a family of scientists, so I was probably destined to go into science. I was inspired about geology, in particular, by an amazing university professor who really pushed me to think for myself, and therefore showed me that I could think for myself. My interest in volcanoes arose from time working on active volcanoes in Antarctica and the US; it was my experience with the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens in the US, specifically, that motivated me to pursue my PhD

In your view are there any obstacles to women following a career in science, maths, engineering or technology?

There are obstacles to any career, I imagine. As a senior woman scientist, I had virtually no female role models or mentors, and early in my career I was typically the only woman in field parties. This caused problems primarily with my self confidence and my view of myself as a scientist. Hopefully that is less of a problem today, when there are many more women pursuing careers in Earth Science than there were in the past.

If so what do you think needs to change to encourage women into the field?

Particularly in the UK, where career paths are decided early on, it is clear that any encouragement about pursuing science as a career has to occur early on, as students are choosing subjects for A levels.

I am not sufficiently familiar with the UK education system to provide good insight in how this might be done. I’m American, where the education pathway is less structured and where innovative university-level classes can entice students to contemplate careers in science.

What do you think of Ada Lovelace Day? Is it a good way to inspire young women to go into science?

I’ll confess that I don’t know much about it, but I think that any event that highlights women in science has to help!

And finally, what reactions do you get when you explain to people what you do?

Well, everyone is fascinated by volcanoes so the reaction that I get is related to me being a volcanologist (which is seen as a very glamorous profession) rather than the fact that I am a woman scientist.