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The Edinburgh professor plugging the 鈥榣eaky pipeline鈥� that prevents women from having careers in science

8 March 2018

Professor Polly Arnold OBE wants to fix the ‘leaky pipeline’ of women dropping out of scientific careers.

Only 9% of chemistry professors are women, according to . This is despite the near 50-50 male-female ratio of undergraduate chemistry students.

“At every level [beyond undergraduate] the leaky pipeline affect works,” . “This is the pipeline where women drop out at a greater rate at every career stage.”

To combat this Professor Arnold has launched , a website designed to end the isolation felt by women in the STEM industries, and to establish a network of great female scientists.

SciSisters

Professor Polly Arnold explains how SciSisters supports women working in STEM

Women in the STEM industries

  • A new network has been set up to support women scientists who find themselves isolated in senior positions.

  • Women dominated the early days of programming - so how did men take over, and what can be done to balance things out again?

  • 鈥淚f somebody offers you a seat on a rocket ship, you don't ask what seat - you just get on,鈥� says Nicola Mendelsohn.

  • Stanford graduates Lea and Sasha are only just starting on their professional journey in the technology industry and they are already battle-scarred.

The programme in full

  • Pennie Latin meets the founder of Sci Sisters and the Crum Brown Chair of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh, Professor Polly Arnold.

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