A decade ago, 9 per cent of engineers were women. The years since then have seen numerous well-funded campaigns attempting to chip away at this shocking sum. Yet today, nothing has changed. Still, only 9 per cent of engineers are women.
Professor Athene Donald of Churchill College, Cambridge, a renowned physicist and former University of Cambridge Gender Equality Champion, tackles this persistent problem of the lack of women in science, and in particular physics and engineering, in her lively, provocative new book ‘Not Just For The Boys’ (OUP, £16.99, ISBN 9780192893406). "We’re losing half our talent," she bemoans, arguing that good science needs diverse scientists. Yet the very best we can say is that the hurdles to women in STEM, once hidden, have now become ‘less invisible’.
The book opens with a gallop through the centuries of women’s contribution to STEM, from Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673), in 1667 the first woman to attend a Royal Society...