International Women’s Day

Viscount Stansgate Excerpts

Friday 8th March 2024 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Stansgate (Lab)]

My Lords, it seems strange on International Women’s Day to begin a speech by saying “My Lords”, so I will say, colleagues, that I am very pleased to take part in this debate and to make a short contribution. Like every other Member, I wish the noble Baroness, Lady Casey, well in her maiden speech. That may not help her, but we all wish her well. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Northover, and to her daughter and granddaughter, that I remember standing up here and speaking a mere few hours after I became a grandparent for the first time, and I found myself instantly realising that I had a personal stake in the 22nd century.

The Motion we are debating today refers to

“steps taken to promote the economic inclusion of women”,

and I want to talk today about women and science. Why? Because studying science opens the way to an enormously wide range of opportunities in life, both personally and professionally, and science is as relevant and important a gateway to economic inclusion as any other. To get straight to the point, I want to talk about the scientific inclusion of women. I should say, as in the register of interests, that I am president of the Parliamentary and Scientific Committee, which is Parliament’s oldest all-party group.

I thank the many scientific organisations that contacted me while I was preparing for this debate to provide material and points that they would like made on their behalf. Frankly, I have been inundated and I am grateful to them all. For the sake of their right to be recorded in Hansard, I thank the Royal Society, the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, the Royal Society of Biology, the Institute of Physics, the Royal Astronomical Society, the Royal Society of Chemistry, the Anatomical Society, the Nutrition Society, the University of Reading, the Campaign for Science and Engineering and the Library for its briefing on today’s debate.

The House should know that all these societies are strong advocates for the inclusion of women, as well as for equality and diversity, in science. They have all provided far more statistics than I could use, but all are engaged in a variety of initiatives designed to promote women. The Royal Society highlighted that just over a quarter of the STEM workforce are women, yet women as a whole comprise 52% of the workforce, so there is still a long way to go.

On the other hand, to be a bit more optimistic, there are signs of some change for the better. The Physiological Society brought to my attention that three of the most eminent scientists in its field are women, one of whom is a Member of this House. The Nutrition Society provided me with a long list of success stories featuring women who have won major awards. The Institute of Mathematics and its Applications pointed out that female mathematicians now occupy some of the most important and distinguished places in public life: the Government’s Chief Scientific Adviser, the director of GCHQ, the chair of the Council for the Mathematical Sciences, the president of the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications and the heads of the Isaac Newton Institute and the Heilbronn Institute for Mathematical Research. I emphasise that these are the first women ever to hold these roles.

Unsurprisingly, there are still areas where progress needs to be made. The well-documented leaky pipeline is as leaky as it was when we held this debate last year. In the chemical sciences and physics, the retention and development of women into senior roles remains poor; the higher up the career ladder, the smaller the proportion of women. We must do more to encourage women taking career breaks to keep in touch with their science and make it easier for them to return as soon as they want to—and not to positions clearly less senior than those they occupied before taking a maternity break, for example. The Royal Society of Biology highlighted “insufficient support” for those with caring responsibilities. The Royal Society, the Anatomical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry agree—frankly, everybody agrees. If I have found one major theme repeated in the many briefings I have received, it is the question of how effectively to enhance support for women in mid-career. This also involves the problem of short-term contracts and funding, because those with caring responsibilities are predominantly women.

This Monday we held the annual STEM for Britain event, which brings early-career scientists to the House to meet their constituency Members of Parliament and exhibit their work. It is highly competitive, and the most brilliant young people came. As I handed out the prizes, I could not help but think to myself that the women getting the prizes would face hurdles in their careers that the men would not. I hope the Minister will acknowledge the crucial importance of this issue.

It is also well known that female scientists frequently fail to get proper credit for their research. Nature found that 13% fewer women were likely to be named as authors on a scientific paper to which they had contributed. When Watson and Crick won the Nobel prize, Rosalind Franklin, whose work had made it all possible, was not even mentioned. The men got the Nobel prize, yet if DNA is not a symbol of the 21st century, I do not know what is.

Role models are also terribly important. The Institute of Physics referred to “outdated stereotypes”. Thank heavens we have some women who can really inspire. Anyone who has seen Maggie Aderin-Pocock, who presents “The Sky at Night”, will know how inspirational she is. As the Oscars are coming up on Sunday, I note that a Barbie doll, whose dress features the sky and who has a telescope, is named after her.

My time is up, so I conclude by saying this. It is really straightforward: scientific inclusion is a vital ingredient of economic inclusion, and our country and economy cannot afford to waste the talents of half our population. Women and girls need science, science needs access to the fullest range of talent, and economic inclusion demands no less.