Women in the sciences
This week, Bitmaker’s Front-End Developer Barbara was invited to be a panellist for Hacker Paradise’s ‘Women in Tech’ talk. She, amongst other women in the tech industry, shared their experiences of what it’s like to be a woman in this field.
I think it’s a topic that is regularly overlooked; outreach to females to join the field is minuscule compared to outreach to men, and gender stereotypes ensure that this trend is perpetuated. Social constructs have meant that females are still seen as less able to undertake mentally and physically challenging tasks compared to men.
Of course, gender stereotypes are changing and there is an increase in women entering the field of science, but the balance is still too uneven. For those that enter the field, they face many (unintentional or not) forms of discrimination such as ‘mansplaining’ and unequal pay. It isn’t a matter of blaming an entire gender for the struggle of another, but rather a matter of shedding light on the problem and together, male and female, thinking about ways it can be overcome. What do you think can be done to ensure motivation and gender equality within the sciences?
