Category Archives: Women in Science

Mentors and Role Models

Posted on November 4, 2020 by Athene Donald

Five years ago I received a package in the post, with a covering letter from someone I’d never met. Dan Davis, Professor of Immunology at the University of Manchester and apparently a fan of this blog, had sent me a … Continue reading →

Posted in Careers, Women in Science | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Getting Behind Diversity Statistics

Posted on October 4, 2020 by Athene Donald

Earlier this year UKRI published ‘harmonised’ diversity data across all its councils. These did not make for comfortable reading, with attention being particularly focussed on two findings: Female and ethnic minority awardees tend to apply for and win smaller awards: … Continue reading →

Posted in Equality, Science Funding, Women in Science | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Of a Retiring Nature

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Athene Donald

The end of this month marks my retirement from my professorial position at Cambridge, something that I still find rather surprising. My career on that front has just faded out, yet another victim of the pandemic; the conference planned for … Continue reading →

Posted in Science Culture, Women in Science | Tagged , , | 14 Comments

We’ve Come a Long Way But…..

Posted on September 14, 2020 by Athene Donald

When Rita Colwell was born in 1934, neither Oxford nor Cambridge Universities had yet appointed a female professor in any discipline; Dorothy Garrod, the first woman to hold such a chair (the Disney Chair of Archaeology at Cambridge), was not … Continue reading →

Posted in Equality, Women in Science | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Active Silencing

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Athene Donald

Aggressive. That’s such a useful put-down. As in “I think there were several very vocal, dare I say aggressive residents that, in my opinion, regardless of what work was being carried out or not, they still would have had reason … Continue reading →

Posted in Equality, Women in Science | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments