FUTURE TALENTED Spring Term 2019 - Issue 2 | Page 49

Why did
you found Stemettes and
what does it do?
I had a ‘Road to Damascus’ moment in
2012. I was working in the technology
department of a big bank, and was
asked to attend a conference to talk
about our pioneering work.
I hadn’t realised it was a ‘women in
technology’ conference, nor that being
a woman in tech was a big deal.
Stemettes was born in 2013, out of the
feeling I had at that conference:
technology is solving so many
problems, so how is it that half of
society is not engaging as much as it
should or could do? 
It’s about inspiring and supporting
the next generation of females into
science, technology, engineering and
maths (STEM) careers, creating
environments where girls have a
positive STEM experience and see
aspects of the industry up close. We
arrange free events away from school,
including hackathons, panels,
exhibitions and mentoring schemes.
What has been your most
rewarding moment since
founding Stemettes?
In the summer of 2015, we had this
crazy idea of inviting young women
who were already working in STEM
industries to live together in a house in
south London, about 45 at a time, over
the course of six weeks.
There were girls all over the UK and
Ireland working on similar projects and
we thought “you don’t know you’re
living parallel lives”, so inviting them
helped us make that connection.
We now have some of these girls
working with each other, building and
testing products together. They’re all
young, but there will
be a time when I’ll look
at tech companies and
know their chief information
officer, chief technology
officer and MD were living in
the house over the course of that
summer. It’s a powerful community.
Why is there a gender-based
stigma attached to STEM?
The stigma comes from social norms,
it’s not something we’re born with:
“Gosh that’s a computer, it’s not
something I should build because I
have an extra X chromosome.”
A report by the Geena Davis Institute
found that for every seven STEM
fictional characters on screen, only one
is a woman, and even then it’s the
stereotypical portrayal of scientists –
but with longer hair and higher voices.
How do we break
down barriers for girls?
By promoting STEM as altruistic and
creative. A lot of the girls have never
been able to tie their science lessons
to this feeling. We have too much focus
on how to make things better, harder,
faster, stronger. Science and tech are
arguably more creative than English or
art, because they are about solving
problems that help people.
The other step is to talk about role
models. Ask a woman to name a
scientist and they’ll say “Newton” or
“You don’t have to
be a dead, white male
to be a scientist
role model”
STEM
QUICK
• Stemettes aims to support the next
generation of females into STEM careers.
• The stigma around women in STEM
comes from social norms, which must be
challenged in schools and business.
• STEM careers are inherently altruistic and
creative and involve solving problems
that help people – and should be
promoted as such.
“Einstein”, but the technology that
underpins Wi-Fi and Bluetooth was
co-invented by the actress and inventor
Hedy Lamarr. You don’t have to be a
dead, white male to be a scientist
role model.
How can we promote STEM
careers to young women?
We need to ensure there’s no enabling
of cultures that lead to women dropping
out. Businesses need to partner with
organisations that can engage young
women. We forget what it is to be a
teenager. Parents tell me “we took our
daughter to this event, and it bored her
to death” or “it was a panel of men
asking her to solve the problem of
women in STEM”.
“science and tech are
about solving problems
that help people”
FUTURE TALENT // 49