The rhetoric of feminism and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects seems tired. Most journalists go with ‘sobering stats on the lack of women in STEM fields’ or ‘celebrating forgotten heroines of STEM that the patriarchy has erased.’ So it was with some expectation of cliché fulfilment that I attended Ada Lovelace Day this month at the IET in London, an event which aims to deal with both these issues by increasing ‘the profile of women in STEM and, in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls into STEM careers and support women already working in STEM’ as well as profiling the life and works of the great Ada.
I was ready to be preached at. I was ready to be educated about Lovelace and her crucially overlooked work. I was ready to feel indignant and impotent about the lack of high-profile female STEM heroines. I was ready (I also read the website) for some ‘science cabaret’, whatever that might be.
What I wasn’t ready for was a series of slick, emotive presentations from some exceptionally talented women who are at the top of their game.
I watched wide-eyed as Dr Sheila Kanani, planetary scientist, made a comet in front of my eyes. I listened, spellbound, as Dr Kat Arney told the intricately fascinating story of the human gene from her new book. I heard Jenny Duckett casually tell the tale of how she and her team redirected every single piece of information from every single old government website onto a brand new one. I smelt centuries-old air as Dr Anna Jones, deputy science leader for the British Antarctic Survey's Atmosphere Ice and Climate Team, melted ancient icicles for me.
I heard Dr Bissan Al-Lazikani explain, with humour and compassion, how she is using the same network theory that Facebook uses to find drugs that treat cancer. I watched Dr Sara Santos perfectly predict card sequences using de Bruijn sequences she had memorised. I listened to Yewande Akinola describe her lifechanging, groundbreaking work as an engineer working all over the world with some of the planet’s most impoverished people.
Finally, I welled up at the trailer of ‘Hidden Figures’, a huge Hollywood blockbuster out on Christmas Day this year about three African-American scientists and mathematicians who proved crucial to the success of Project Mercury and the Apollo 11 moon landing, despite the discrimination they faced.
Whether you’re a female or not; whether you’re a mathematician or not; whether you’re interested in feminism or not; the simple human stories of many, many lives being changed by dedicated professionals in the field is the narrative that I find most compelling. I’m proud to stand with these and many other women – and men – making lives better through STEM work in its many colours, and with those breaking down the barriers to opportunity that may still exist.
Images: Paul Clarke, Flickr