Shini Somara: What has it been like being women of colour in STEM?
Donna Otchere: There are very few of us in engineering. I was one of two girls in my physics class and perhaps five people in my undergraduate degree who were from BAME backgrounds. I have always been driven by my love of maths and creativity, and engineering has always really interested me, so it was an obvious choice of career for me.
Not relating to others, however, has made things harder, but if I don’t speak up for minorities in STEM this problem continues.
I also witness so many misconceptions in engineering about who and what engineers are, and that must change too! Engineers are problem-solvers and that can be anyone.
Abigail Otchere: I see more women than men in my field of biomedical science, but there are certainly more males in senior roles. The higher I climbed in education, fewer women of colour existed. I certainly didn’t know anyone who had done a PhD before.
We grew up...