Not Just for the Boys Why We Need More Women in Science – Professor Athene Donald

Times have changed since women were barred from laboratories and unable to take science degrees. But have they changed enough for women in science? Despite making great strides, especially in biomedical sciences, numbers of women studying physics and engineering remain small and the caricature of the scientist as a man in a white coat dominates. Why are girls discouraged from doing science? What barriers do women face in the world of modern research?

Athene Donald, a distinguished physicist, explores the factors that drive women to give up on a career in science. She describes how creative and exhilarating working in science can be and why women must take their proper place as equals in the lab and in the committees where top-level decisions are made.

Athene Donald is Professor Emerita in Experimental Physics and Master of Churchill College, University of Cambridge. She has spent her career in Cambridge, specialising in soft matter physics and physics at the interface with biology. She was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999 and appointed DBE for services to Physics in 2010.

‘A brilliant book: how we got here, where we are today – and why the lack of women in science really matters’ – Alice Roberts