STEM
Tools to fight stereotyping
Inferior, published in 2017, is accessible and
inspiring, though Saini admits that it “doesn’t
make for comfortable reading. The facts are
sometimes greyer than people might
want them to be,” she acknowledges in the
book’s introduction.
It’s aim is to make people think — beyond
the messages they have received from
science and the media — and, for Wade, this
questioning should begin as early as possible;
hence her mis sion to get the book
into schools.
“There was a boom of neuroscience
experiments in the mid 1990s, all of which set
out to show that men’s and women’s brains
are different,” she argues.
“We now have a generation of people —
today’s teachers and parents — who were
brought up on this. They have such an
influence on what young people think about
themselves and the choices they make.”
After discovering the book, Wade took it
everywhere, she explains. “At every conference
I went to, I gave it to scientists, and to all the
work experience students I had. I then figured
it would be great to get it into every state
school in the country.
“The Institute of Physics (IOP) has shown
that you can’t just tell girls they’re brilliant and
should be more confident; you have to give
them the tools to be able to fight whatever
they’re feeling themselves; to recognise that
the biases and stereotypes in society are
nothing to do with them.”
Ultimately, supporting more girls to study
sciences and choose STEM careers involves
giving them access to the facts about their
aptitude and abilities, as well as the value and
creativity of science and engineering.
In the history of science, we have to hunt
for the women — not because they weren’t
capable of doing the research, but because,
for a large chunk of time, they didn’t have
the chance. We’re still living with the legacy
of an establishment that’s just beginning to
recover from centuries of entrenched
exclusion and privilege
Angela Saini, Inferior
“I think careers advice is the most important
thing in all of this,” asserts Wade.
Copies of Inferior were sent to schools in
January and she has been gratified to receive
positive feedback. “I did a physics talk at a
university in Sussex and a bunch of girls had
come just to talk about the book,” she recalls.
“They’d got it at their schools and we spoke
a lot about that. I’ve also had some great
emails from teachers who have used it to start
discussions about biases and stereotyping,
which was exactly what I wanted.”
Its messages are as important for boys as
girls, she points out: “The stereotypes society
puts on boys hold them back just as much. I
don’t think we should limit anyone.”
Changing demographics in physics
Wade, who is a post-doctoral researcher in
physics at Imperial College London, declares
a personal interest in encouraging more girls
into science — and particularly into physics,
which remains dominated by (white,
middle-class) men.
A self-proclaimed ‘chief troublemaker’ —
editing Wikipedia entries to ensure women
and people of colour are recognised for their
achievements in science — she herself was
inspired by a “brilliant physics teacher” at her
all-girls’ school. However, when doing
her doctorate, the gender imbalance
became clear.
“The percentage of physics professors who
are women is about 11% in the UK and I don’t
think there’s a single physics professor (male
or female) who’s black,” she says. “So you
become incredibly aware of the lack
of diversity.
“It damages school kids because the
stereotypes they get from physics are entirely
true, but it also damages the science we do,
because we don’t have enough people from
different backgrounds working on challenges
FUTURE TALENTED // 35