Opinion
Diversity matters
The science community needs a range of skills, minds and human resources to thrive, argues Professor Jackie Hunter
After studying owl monkeys at London Zoo for my PhD, I took a postdoctoral fellowship under Professor Cathy Wilson at St George’s Hospital Medical School. I remember feeling pleased to have Cathy as my supervisor, partly because there were so few women in senior positions in science at the time.
As I moved into industry, working my way up to senior vice president at GSK, I also lectured and supervised PhD students. More recently I became a member of council at the Royal Holloway University of London and Bedford College.
In both academia and industry, once you got higher up in the organisation the story was the same: few senior women and little diversity. A recent report1 by the House of Commons select committee on women in STEM concluded that it is “astonishing that despite clear imperatives and multiple initiatives to improve diversity in STEM, women still remain under-represented at senior levels across every discipline”.
The fourth issue of She Figures: Gender in Research and Innovation, published in 2013 for the European Commission, shows that women remain vastly under-represented in public and private research sectors. Only one in three European researchers are women, and on scientific and management boards across the EU, there is only one woman for every two men.
For science to deliver wealth, prosperity and wellbeing for the UK, we need a wide range of skills, minds and human resources. We must make full use of our most powerful asset: people. For this to happen, diversity has to be taken seriously. This doesn’t just mean equality for genders. As research and technology becomes more globalised, diversity in general is increasingly important as an engine for growth.
There are a few positive steps: some of the gender gaps in science have been narrowing slowly in recent years, and in the commercial sector the proportion of women on FTSE 100 boards topped 20% for the first time this year. It was also heartening
Professor Jackie Hu nter is chief executive of the Bi otechnologyand Bi ological Scie nces Re search Co uncil ( BSRC) . She was awarded a CBE in theQueen’s Bi rthday Hono urs list for Se rvices to thePharmaceutical Ind ustry in 2010. He r industrial career focusedon neurologyand gastrointestinal drugdevelopment.
References 1 S cience and Te chnology Committee – S ixth Report. Women in scientific careers (Jan 2014) bit.ly/1cXvMFy arie Curie, Dame Jocelyn Bel l Bu rnell, Fa biola Gi anotti and Da me Jean Thomas have all succeeded in science, yetwomen remain heavily outnumbered in senior roles to hear David Willetts, minister for universities and science, speaking of requirements for evidence of commitment to equality and diversity in recent funding announcements.
If we are going to see a real step change though, we need to increase our efforts. Initiatives like Athena SWAN can help us to do that. When it was launched at the Institute of Physics in 2005, it involved just 10 universities and focused on recognising commitment to advancing women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine in academia. There are now more than 90 members and there is a pilot to extend the charter to non-higher education institutions.
As part of the pilot, the John Innes Centre was judged to have achieved the equivalent of an Athena SWAN silver award, and The Pirbright Institute gained bronze ranking. Many others participated and hopefully more will follow suit.
From 2015, the silver award level will be a requirement when making funding applications to the National Institute for Health Research – great news for the research community because Athena SWAN is making a difference. A research report on the charter identified impact in terms of organisational and cultural change, with better representation of women and support for career progression, and growth in women’s networking across institutions.
Another helpful programme is the Daphne Jackson Fellowships, which helps scientists return to their careers after a break of two or more years, supporting those who have taken time off due to family, caring or health reasons. Of university departments with an Athena SWAN bronze award, 82% have hosted a Daphne Jackson Fellow.
Science will only reach its true potential if it makes use of diverse talents and I intend to use my position as BBSRC chief executive to champion this vital issue and to encourage others to do the same.
8 / the biologist / Vol 61 No 2
