Science no longer belongs to men, but the scientific gender gap is still a reality.
“Science remains institutionally sexist. Despite some progress, women scientists are still paid less, promoted less frequently, win fewer grants and are more likely to leave research than similarly qualified men,” sums up a 2013 Nature ‘Women in Science’ special edition.
A lack of female role models, especially those in leadership positions in academia, was found to be a major factor in women abandoning a career in research.
South Africa celebrates Women’s Month in August. To mark it, we shared the stories of some of AHRI’s women researchers – asking them what advice they’d give their younger selves. Some of our featured #womeninSTEM are still students, some of them are well established researchers leading their own groups. All of them are role models to younger, aspiring women in STEM.
This is what a few of them had to say:
Dear younger me… #WomeninSTEM #WomensMonth @thando_b pic.twitter.com/SiuXQ8JHOd
— AHRI (@AHRI_News) August 25, 2017
Dear younger me… #WomeninSTEM #WomensMonth pic.twitter.com/Ds00qjgJra
— AHRI (@AHRI_News) August 30, 2017
Dear younger me… #WomensMonth #womeninSTEM #WomensDay #womensday2017 pic.twitter.com/DDAobRdz2C
— AHRI (@AHRI_News) August 9, 2017
Dear younger me… #WomensDay #womeninSTEM pic.twitter.com/HMb1pfV38f
— AHRI (@AHRI_News) August 9, 2017
You can find more pictures and videos of our Women’s Month Campaign on Facebook and Twitter.
Top photo: Khadija Khan, AHRI Biorepository Supervisor.
By: Phumla Ngcobo