Even your grandfather has heard of Stemm these days.

There has been a huge focus on Stemm (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine) education in recent years, and a myriad of initiatives launched to encourage more girls and young women to pursue careers in these areas.

A career in Stemm can be incredible. There are not many careers where you get to follow your instinct, try new things and do things no one else in the world has done before. Those who think science is dry and boring really just don’t get it – it is one of the most creative and thrilling careers you can choose.

But what about the women already working in Stemm, dealing daily with a system that historically did not value them or even want them there? Remarkable women who encounter unconscious and outright bias in their workplaces, and systems that are built to benefit and promote a model of a scientist that doesn’t look or act anything like them. Responding to these numerous challenges, an online community of women in Stemm has been brought together through an unexpected medium – a very modern book club.

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The STEMMinist Book Club was founded online in January 2018 and has already amassed more than 1,700 members from 25 countries. The online discussion takes place on Twitter, allowing members worldwide the flexibility and opportunity to join the conversation. Twitter has become an important medium for scientists in recent years, with scientists the third most regular users, following journalists and politicians. It can be a supportive and empowering space for women and minorities in Stemm, particularly for those working in more isolated environments.

As well as online discussions of key books about women in Stemm and feminism, group members meet up physically in cities around the world including Sydney, Dublin, Istanbul, Montreal and Oxford. Meet-ups are a welcome opportunity for groups of like-minded Stemminists to get together in a relaxed atmosphere, to network, discuss some of the current challenges for women in Stemm and share solutions and solidarity. In just a few months, new friendships and research collaborations have already been established between members, and the sense of warmth and shared purpose is strong.

A crowd at the first Sydney book club. Image: @stemminist

The first book chosen for discussion was Inferior: The True Power of Women and the Science that Shows it by UK-based science journalist Angela Saini. Inferior is a blistering analysis of how science itself is subject to bias, and how ideas about female intellectual inferiority have been promoted by poor science, interpretation and presentation of data.

Angela’s book sheds light on the untold experiences of women whose advocacy and research transformed our preconceptions about men and women. It highlights the experiences of women such as Caroline Kennard, who, after hearing that On the Origin of Species was being used to support the idea that women were intellectually inferior to men, wrote a furious letter to the ageing Darwin, urging him to set the record straight.

Sadly, Caroline’s worst fears were confirmed when the acclaimed scientist reiterated his belief in the intellectual inferiority of women – but her efforts inspired other women, who worked relentlessly to change the way the scientific establishment viewed women. These stories and shared experiences connect women of the past and present in a remarkably powerful way.

Those who think science is dry and boring really just don’t get it – it is one of the most creative and thrilling careers you can choose

The book instigated a great deal of discussion and debate among members worldwide and got the STEMMinist Book Club off to a roaring start in January. Subsequent books: Stop Fixing Women by Australian journalist Catherine Fox; and Testosterone Rex: Myths of Sex, Science, and Society by Professor Cordelia Fine, have continued to spark vigorous discussion online via Twitter and at meet-ups.

“I am thrilled to see how the book club blossomed from nothing to many hundreds of members all over the world in such a short space of time” says Saini, author of Inferior. “Women in science clearly want change, and I think we’re finally starting to see it happen.”

These stories and shared experiences connect women of the past and present in a remarkably powerful way

The STEMMinist Book club has rapidly become not just a forum for discussing books about Stemm and feminism, but also a tight community of kick arse women (and a few men!) who are passionate about gender equity and instigating real change in Stemm.

Interested in joining the Stemminist army? Follow @stemminist on twitter, use #STEMMinistBC to search previous discussions, and join the conversation. A world of brilliant, motivated and intelligent Stemminists are ready to greet you!

Dr Caroline Ford is a researcher of gynaelogical cancer, a lecturer, a mother and a feminist. She lives and works in New South Wales, Australia

Inferior: The True Power of Women and the Science that Shows it, by Angela Saini, is published by 4th Estate.

Featured image: Christin Hume

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“Getting into advertising was the hardest part of the job”, says Emily Stewart, an account director at a major creative agency. “When I started out, it seemed like a mythical industry – one in which you had to know someone to get in.”

With an estimated 60 per cent of jobs going unadvertised, the creative industry can indeed be tough to crack. Entry points are often limited to the well-educated, the well-connected, the well-off – and the white. Many people who do find careers do so through existing connections or unpaid internships, which exclude young people from low-income backgrounds.

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This struggle is one of the reasons why Stewart signed up as a mentor in the Creative Mentor Network. For four months, she was paired with Esme Kontoh – a sixth-former from London with aspirations to work in the media. The pair met for an hour a week, discussing the roles available in advertising, the skills needed, and potential routes in.

Kontoh says: “I learned that there were a range of different routes you could take to get into the industry, and realised that it was more diverse than I once thought.”

Young people at a Creative Mentor Network event

That said, while diversity may be a buzzword in creative circles, the statistics are revealing. In design and fashion, under 9 per cent of employees are from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds, and in film and TV production that figure is just 3 per cent.

In journalism, 80 per cent of the top echelon of editors are privately educated, compared to just 18 per cent of Britain’s population.

When Isabel Farchy founded the non profit Creative Mentor Network in 2015, this was among the issues she wanted to address: “There are so many creative businesses talking about the importance of hiring diverse talent”, she says, “but I worry that talking about it in some way absolves people from doing anything about it.”

I learned that there were a range of different routes you could take to get into the industry, and realised that it was more diverse than I once thought

A former teacher of English and media, Farchy was working in an academy in west London when she realised the extent of the problem. Locked out by old boys’ networks, financially impossible internships, limited careers guidance and a pervasive lack of industry awareness, many creative teenagers were leaving school with little or no understanding of creative careers. Some relegated their passion to a hobby while others chose to abandon it altogether.

“As the fastest-growing sector and the biggest graduate employer, the creative industries should be a focus for careers departments,” Farchy notes.

Sophie, a career consultant in the mentor network, is a teacher and illustrator

But they often are not, and parents from low-income families often discourage their children from taking what is seen as a risky option. The network selects pupils from schools with a high proportion of students on free school meals and high levels of ethnic diversity, and links them with creative professionals. The mentors span advertising, design, film and TV.

The aim is that the young people leave the scheme with at least four connections in their chosen sector. Farchy plans to expand the network to 50 schools in London in 2018, and then to other cities. But this is no one-way street: mentors get access to fresh perspectives from outside their bubble and access to untapped young talent. In some cases? They may even be meeting a future employee.

Young people at a Creative Mentor Network event

Images: Creative Mentor Network

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Professor Dame Carol Robinson is the first female Professor of Chemistry at Oxford University, having previously been the first woman in the same role at Cambridge University. She left school at 16 and later took a long career break to raise her three children, yet her pioneering work is helping to improve drug design for conditions from cancer to schizophrenia.

In March she was named the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women In Science European Laureate for 2015. The programme has honoured 87 laureates globally since 1998 for excellence in science, including two who later won the Nobel prize.

Robin Yapp: What were your career ambitions when you left school and how did you achieve so much in the academic world having missed out on higher education?

Prof Robinson: I never planned a career in academia or science – it just happened. All I knew was I loved chemistry at school, so I decided I’d continue in science. I was encouraged to study for a degree part-time and was later accepted to do a PhD at the University of Cambridge. When I was appointed research professor at the University of Oxford, I felt I had achieved a career in science.

“The opportunities to present research, interact at conferences and carry out collaborations across the world are tremendously exciting.”

What is the significance, for a lay audience, of the work for which you’ve gained recognition from the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science programme?

I work on membrane protein complexes, which act as the gatekeepers to cells controlling the import and export of molecules in and out of cells. They can open and close and let the drug back out of the target cell, making it less efficient. The better we understand how these gatekeepers work, the better we can design drugs.

How does the programme advance the cause of women scientists? Can you envisage gender equality, meaning it’s no longer needed?

Programmes like this are helping to put women scientists on the world stage and celebrate their successes. They also encourage mentoring and I feel this is an important part of getting women to stay and progress in science. More programmes now exist to address this but there’s still a lot more we can do until there is gender equality in science.

You took an eight-year career break to start raising a family. What would you say to women who feel they have to choose between having a family and achieving their professional potential?

I’m often asked this and my answer is always the same: do what you feel is right for you. I have no regrets. Equally, I’ve seen women cope extremely well with balancing motherhood and academia. I’m a strong advocate of how flexible a career in science can be – don’t think of it as being stuck in the lab all day. The opportunities to present research, interact at conferences and carry out collaborations across the world are tremendously exciting.

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You’ve sometimes used unorthodox methods in your research. Have you ever felt your freedom to experiment has been restricted by outside pressures or perceptions?

No, I always felt confident in my work, but it was personal confidence I lacked. I felt my unconventional start was a huge disadvantage but my methods have paid off! As I get older, and maybe wiser, I’ve become less worried about what people think of me and more confident to say what I really think.

Are there still barriers to women advancing in science at leading UK universities and in the private sector? If so, what needs to change?

It’s very much still perceived as a man’s world and it really shouldn’t be. One of the main issues is the lack of role models. When I was young there were none, apart from the obvious Dorothy Hodgkin or Marie Curie. The long hours culture conflicts with family life and in my opinion this is the biggest perceived obstacle for women entering academia.

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Hundreds of people gathered at Battersea Arts Centre in London at this year’s Transition Network Conference to explore the theme ‘Building Resilience in Extraordinary Times’. The sixth conference of the Transition Towns movement, which took place last month, saw its most international attendance ever, with dozens of participants coming from as far afield as Brazil and the Philippines.

The opening evening saw the launch of Transition Free Press, the new national newspaper of the Transition Network. A quarterly newspaper, Transition Free Press will share the narrative of Transition that is not being aired in the mainstream media. In doing so, it aims to connect campaigners and people in Transition with those that have never heard of terms such as ‘energy descent’ or ‘alternative currencies’.

The newspaper’s editor, Charlotte Du Cann, emphasised the importance of publishing in print, noting that “the printed page goes places that computers can never go, no matter how swanky the tech.”

The power of stories was emphasised in the opening address by Rob Hopkins, co-founder of Transition Network, who said that he was increasingly interested in how stories can help “breathe life into ideas”. This concept was supported throughout the conference by the team of social reporters who regularly uploaded written, visual and audio material to the Transition Network Website.

The conference programme struck a healthy balance between workshops, open space sessions, group activities and socialising. The tapestry of workshops the conferences offered catered for a vast range of both hard and soft skills, from ‘Communicating Transition Effectively’ to sourdough baking.

“The tapestry of workshops the conferences offered ranged from ‘Communicating Transition Effectively’ to sourdough baking”

The ‘What Happens when Transition Towns says No?’ workshop looked at the pioneering interplay between the activist and transition movements and ignited some healthy discussion. Some participants in the workshop felt strongly that the role of the Transition movement was to create alternatives to the status quo, rather than campaign against it. Others felt that Transition groups were well placed to do both, as they could mobilise people through their local networks to support campaigns.

Examples of how the Transition and activist movements have unified were given by members of Transition Heathrow, which uses its physical presence to oppose plans for a third airport runway.

The workshop ended with acknowledgment that Transition Towns are often capable of campaigning for a stronger ’No’ than many other campaigning groups, as they can back this up by demonstrating viable alternatives through their home-grown initiatives. However, the issue of whether it is within the remit of Transition Towns to employ such tactics was unresolved.

Having attended many progressive conferences in the last few years, it was clear to me that the conference’s structure and processes really did nourish participation. Its use of hand gestures and open space technology ensured that group meetings were creative, inclusive and productive, and enabled delegates to engage with the conference in a way that suited them, while fostering a tangible sense of community. In essence, the conference ‘walked the talk’ as it proved to be a wonderful working example of the Transition initiative: a place where there’s a community-led process that helps that town/village/city/neighbourhood become stronger and happier.

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