̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge - Sophie Zadeh

Closing the Gender Gap

ta385 — Fri, 02 Oct 2015 11:00:00 +0000

Gender diversity, both in education and the economy, is now the subject of serious debate among policy-makers, academics, teachers and employers. Of particular concern is the fact that female participation in STEM subjects – science, technology, engineering and mathematics – suffers from a “leaky pipeline”. Up to the age of sixteen, as many girls as boys study maths and science, but thereafter a gap opens up which continues to widen at each step of the career ladder.

For this reason, many of Cambridge’s access events aim to encourage female students, particularly those in state sector schools and colleges, to continue studying mathematics and science at school and to apply for university courses in which women are currently under-represented across the UK.

Recent events have included

Robinson College’s Women in Science Festival

Robinson welcomed 124 female Sixth Formers from across the country to its inaugural Women in Science Festival, an entirely free one day event aimed at encouraging more young women to pursue further study in science and maths related disciplines.

̽��ֱ��event opened with five talks by female scientists currently making waves at Cambridge. Dr Liisa Van Vliet spoke about microscopy, Dr Teresa Tiffert on Malaria and Anaemias and Dr Athina Markaki on Cardiovascular stents. They were followed by two PhD students – Joana Grah discussed the use of Mathematical Image Analysis in Cancer Research while Diana Vasile revealed the computer science behind mobile devices.

Twelve courageous Sixth Formers then took to the stage to give five minute presentations about a STEM topic which they feel passionate about, earning feedback from an expert judging panel. After taking lunch at Robinson with College Fellows and students, the participants visited the Department of Materials Science & Metallurgy to experience ̽��ֱ��-level laboratory work. ̽��ֱ��most popular experiment involved measuring the temperature-dependent properties of rubber, with the participants using liquid nitrogen to cool their samples.

Robinson’s Dr Rachel Oliver, a Reader in Materials Science, said "We believe that many young women have the potential to make a real contribution in STEM subjects, but they are sometimes put off by misconceptions about science and engineering, or about the people who work in those fields. We wanted to give Sixth Formers the opportunity to meet real female scientists and engineers and be inspired by the work they do.”

Gonville & Caius College’s Women in Economics Day

Highly respected female economists including Dame Kate Barker, a former member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, and Dr Vicky Pryce, former joint head of the Government Economic Service, gave 100 Sixth Form girls a clear message: “Economics Needs You!”

Women currently represent about 36% of applications to study economics at Cambridge and receive 37 per cent of offers. This is significantly higher than the UK average. A recent study by the ̽��ֱ�� of Southampton found that women account for just 27 per cent of economics students in the UK, despite making up 57 per cent of the overall undergraduate population. Nevertheless, the Collegiate ̽��ֱ�� would like to see more women studying Maths in Sixth Form and going on to apply to study economics.

̽��ֱ��event at Gonville & Caius was run by Dr Victoria Bateman, Director of Studies for Economics at the College. Dr Bateman told a packed auditorium "Sadly, the lack of female representation in the subject has meant that economists have built a model of the economy which tells only half of the story. ̽��ֱ��future of economics – and the economy – is in your hands.”

̽��ֱ��students received a welcome message from Carolyn Fairbairn, who gained a double first in economics at Caius and becomes the CBI’s first female director general in November 2015. Ms Fairbairn said economics was too often seen as “a science that only an elite of often male experts are qualified to comment on” and argued that women’s views were vital if economic policy were to respond to the needs of both genders.

Corpus Christi College’s STEM Summer School for Years 12 & 13

For the first time, Corpus Christi ran a three-day STEM event for 16-18 year old female students from across the country. 86 schools, the vast majority state sector, selected one hundred participants to take part in recognition of their impressive academic achievements and their passion for one or more of the STEM subjects.

̽��ֱ��event combined hands-on activities, departmental visits and lectures on a diverse range of topics, from the chemistry of water to a programming language for blind children. It also included a practical advice session on STEM interviews at Cambridge.

Unforgettable words of encouragement came from Dame Athene Donald, Professor of Experimental Physics and Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, who spoke of the importance of perseverance and the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of the sciences.

Event leader, Dr Sophie Zadeh, Fellow in Psychology at Corpus Christi College, said “We’re thrilled that we’ve been able to offer these young women the opportunity to experience Cambridge but we want to ensure the impact of this event reaches far beyond the attendees. We want to help close the gender gap in STEM across the country.”

More information and photos here.

Newnham College’s Joan Clarke Maths Residential

Joan Clarke achieved a double first in Mathematics at Newnham in the 1930s and went on to play a crucial role in the Second World War by helping to crack the Enigma machine at Bletchley Park.

Named in her honour, Newnham’s inaugural maths residential gave thirty Year 13s studying Further Maths at state schools an inspiring taste of STEM subjects at Cambridge.

̽��ֱ��programme included lectures, seminars, discussion groups, practical work and social activities, as well as the opportunity to meet current staff and students.

This entirely free event was made possible by alumnae donations made specifically to encourage more women from state schools to apply for science and maths based courses at Cambridge.

Dr Sam Lucy, Newnham’s Admissions Tutor, said: “This initiative gives very bright young women the information they need to make competitive applications to Cambridge and other top universities, while also helping them to explore the different types of maths taught on STEM courses."

More information here.

Murray Edwards College’s ‘She Talks Science’

Murray Edwards recently set up ‘She Talks Science’, a blog designed to give young women the opportunity to share their passion for science with each other and with Murray Edwards students, Fellows and alumnae. Previous posts have included thoughts on snowflakes, micro-seismic activity and an inspiring introduction from the College’s President, Barbara Stocking.

̽��ֱ��College’s annual Pathways to Success conference introduces high-achieving Year 12s from schools across the UK to students, graduates and staff at Murray Edwards. ̽��ֱ��event aims to encourage young women to expand their horizons and to embrace aiming high. Previous guest speakers have included high-flying alumnae who studied science at the College.

Cavendish Inspiring Women (CiW)

CiW was set up by two Cambridge PhD students, Sarah Morgan and Hannah Stern, together with Dr Elsa Couderc, a former post-doc at the ̽��ֱ��, and Dr Atefey Amin, a research associate, to encourage young women to pursue careers in science, or to use their science training to further other career paths.

CiW introduces promising teenage scientists to inspiring role models by holding regular speaker events at the Cavendish Laboratory. Previous speakers have included Dr Sarah Bohndiek, a lecturer in biomedical physics and a junior research group leader at the Cancer Research UK Cambridge Institute. CiW also provides advice via its website and recently published ‘What is so Exciting About Physics?’ a free booklet aimed at secondary school students featuring insights from several female scientists.

Hannah and Sarah said “We both really enjoy studying science and haven't felt disadvantaged by being women. But we have noticed how few female scientists there are in comparison to men and we know that the way society portrays scientists can sometimes be very stereotypical. So we started Cavendish Inspiring Women to promote the visibility of women in science and to show that it can be an excellent career path for women as well as men.”

Every year, 200,000 young people participate in access initiatives run by the ̽��ֱ�� and the Colleges. This programme includes a wide range of opportunities specifically designed to inspire young women and to foster greater participation in certain areas of Higher Education and work.

"We promote the visibility of women in science and show that it can be an excellent career path for women as well as men".

Sarah Morgan & Hannah Stern, Cavendish Inspiring Women

Robinson College’s Women in Science Festival

̽��ֱ��text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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New conceptions: single mothers by sperm donation

amb206 — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:45:00 +0000

Earlier this month, we were given the sad news that Professor Sir Robert Edwards had passed away. A Nobel Prize winner, scientist, and fellow of Churchill College, Professor Edwards has received much international acclaim for his significant contribution to the field of reproductive medicine. Here in Cambridge, with colleague Patrick Steptoe, he pioneered in vitro fertilisation, a method to facilitate family-building in the face of infertility. Yet, although the scientific implications of IVF were well thought-through by the duo, the extensive social, ethical and philosophical debates which ensued as a result of their work could not have been anticipated.

Twenty five years on, it is clear that assisted reproductive techniques have raised fundamental questions about the relationship between technology and society, and the role of science in human experience. And while IVF at the outset was explicitly used to assist traditional family-building, today technology has enabled lesbian and gay couples and single men and women worldwide to become parents, causing much deliberation, discussion and debate among professionals, politicians, and the wider public.

At the Centre for Family Research, our team, headed by Professor Susan Golombok, is committed to obtaining empirical evidence on the psychological, social and emotional well-being of parents and children in families formed through assisted reproduction. Having conducted research on hundreds of families of different shapes and sizes, we have learnt that what seems to be most important is not how families are formed or structured, but the quality of family relationships and experiences. One of our most recent research projects focuses on single women who have used a sperm donor to have a child.

In 1990, when the UK government first legislated about the use of assisted reproduction, it was stated that clinicians needed to consider a ‘child’s need for a father’ in deciding whom to offer treatment. In practice, we know that some fertility clinics were already offering, and continued to offer, treatment to lesbian couples and single women, but the ‘need for a father’ was only recently replaced by the ‘need for supportive parenting’ when the legislation was last amended – in 2008.

Many of the arguments against single women using sperm donation assume that these families are likely to face similar issues to those that might affect single-parent families by divorce, such as financial or emotional difficulties. It is often assumed that women who want to use fertility treatment on their own will fit a middle-class, career-focused, 40-something stereotype, suddenly struck by the sound of their ticking biological clock.

This group of women has been widely criticised for the pursuit of a non-traditional path to parenthood which ultimately, it is argued, deprives children of the right to know, and have a relationship with, their biological father. In fact, concerns are raised not only by politicians and the wider public, but by professionals working in fertility treatment services. Clinic staff have questioned whether single women have the adequate material and social resources, and psychological and emotional skills, required to parent effectively. It is often assumed that these women’s single status is indicative of their inability to maintain a successful romantic relationship. This being the case, it is supposed that single mothers by sperm donation will lack the qualities necessary for good parenthood.

Our latest findings at the Centre for Family Research indicate not only that the cohort of single women accessing sperm donation may be more diverse than often assumed, but that concerns about the functioning of their families may be based more upon misinformation than anything else. In our work, we have so far been welcomed into the homes of over 40 single mothers by sperm donation. We have met their children, their families, their friends and, sometimes, their pets, and have been entrusted with significant and often deeply personal information about their experiences. So who are these women, why have they chosen this path to parenthood, and what are their families like?

̽��ֱ��women we have seen come from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, and they differ vastly in their experiences of education and employment. They have ranged in age from their early 30s to their early 50s, with some women initially accessing fertility services as 20-somethings. Only one woman we visited described her decision to use fertility treatment as a result of her career choices earlier in life. In fact, the majority of mothers discuss their decision as resulting from not having a suitable partner at the time they decided to have a child. Contrary to clinical opinion, most of the women in our study have previously been in long-term relationships, and several have cohabited with a partner. Some have had children in these relationships, and others have previously been married.

But why do these women want to become single mothers? ̽��ֱ��answer is that in many ways, they don’t. ̽��ֱ��majority of women we have visited have described how they had always assumed they would have children within a traditional two-parent family, and would have preferred this to be the case. However, they – like the majority of people in the UK today – want to have children, and they want to do so in a way they see as safe and honest, and supported by the services available to them.

When talking about having chosen their specific sperm donor, mothers have described different approaches, including choosing from a sperm donation website in the company of friends, to asking very little information of clinic staff about the donor they have been matched with on the basis of shared physical characteristics. Some mothers tell their family, friends, and their children about their use of a donor, while others do not share this information so readily, and others have opted to refrain from disclosing the information, until their children – who, in our study, are currently aged four to eight – are older.

At odds with the assumption that single women using a sperm donor intentionally deprive their children of a father, most of the mothers we have seen explicitly acknowledge the possibility that their use of a donor may have consequences for how their children feel about their families. Many reflect upon the significance of male role models for their child’s development, and several highlight how they have fostered relationships between their male family members and friends and their children for this reason.

In fact, it seems fair to say that none of the mothers parent single-handedly: they all receive practical and emotional support from family, friends, and others, in raising their children. And although they do see clear differences between their experiences of parenthood and the experiences of their married friends, these differences are not always seen in a negative light. Mothers mostly distinguish between the good and bad families they are familiar with. Their judgments are based upon whether the people in these families are happy and healthy, rather than how many people are in them.

Having now spent over a year listening to their stories, and sharing in mothers’ experiences, it seems reasonable to suggest that politicians, professionals, and the public might do well to take the lead from these mothers in assessing their families in a similar way: irrespective of family structure. Instead of relying on a single stereotype of single mothers by sperm donation, our focus should remain on research which continues to look closely at the well-being of the mothers and children within these families.

Most fundamentally, the debate ignited by Edwards and Steptoe back in 1978 must now move beyond arguments in favour of the traditional family, comprised of two married, heterosexual parents and their 2.4 children. In other words, the need for new conceptions – of family life in general, and of single motherhood specifically – is now clear.

Sophie Zadeh is an ESRC-funded PhD student at the Centre for Family Research, ̽��ֱ�� of Cambridge. Her research with Dr Tabitha Freeman and Professor Susan Golombok focuses on the experiences of single women who have used a sperm donor to have a child, and explores the psychological, social and emotional well-being of mothers and children in these families.

Sophie Zadeh, a PhD candidate in the Centre for Family Research, is contributing to a new study of the well-being of single mothers by sperm donation and their children. Her initial findings confound many of the assumptions about this group of women.

Why do these women want to become single mothers? ̽��ֱ��answer is that in many ways, they don’t.

Sophie Zadeh

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