Women in STEM Author Interview: Elaine A. Moore
Posted on: April 13, 2022
What was your motivating factor to explore the STEM field?
My parents were both interested in STEM subjects, although they left school at a time of mass unemployment and were encouraged by their mothers to obtain a safe job in the civil service. They did however encourage my interest in STEM. For example, I was given a train set, a Meccano set and a chemistry set as well as dolls and books. I am always disappointed when I see toys labelled girls and boys and when nurseries promote gender stereotypes. As well as attracting girls to STEM subjects, we should be supporting boys to be interested in what have traditionally been considered women's areas such as nursing, caring, hairdressing.
At secondary school, I did particularly well in maths, physics and chemistry. A book I read the 6th form, The Strange Story of the Quantum by Banesh Hoffman, inspired me to explore quantum theory. I chose to study chemistry as while both physics and chemistry this field, the rest of the physics syllabus at A level was less interesting.
How can women support one another in the STEM field?
By making sure women's voices are heard in meetings. There are occasions when a woman puts forward an idea, only for a man to repeat it and then the man is credited. Point out that the woman said this first. If a woman looks as though they want to say something but are being ignored by the chair, then alert the chair to this.
If there are several women in your Department, form a group to discuss common problems. At conferences, talk to other women. Form groups of women in the same area across different employers.
Tackle men who are reluctant to take on women in case they become pregnant and those who expect women to attract the same amount of funding as men. Studies have shown that applications with a woman as principal investigator are less likely to be funded or receive lower amounts of funding.
Urge women to say no. Women are often asked to take up jobs supporting students or put on many committees as a token woman.
What needs to happen in the STEM field to attract more women?
Schools need to convince parents that the STEM field is suitable for girls.
Also, it would help to make women in STEM visible so that girls can see people like them in STEM jobs, I was very struck when giving master's level courses in Ethiopia and Sudan by the enthusiasm of women students for women lecturers.
The ambience of the work-place needs to be more family-friendly. Many women drop out at the post doc stage when they are at an age when they wish to have a family. Measures I have seen include workplace nurseries, confining meetings to take place in particular hours, replacing after work drinking sessions with Departmental tea or coffee, keep in touch days where women on maternity leave are kept in touch with what is going on, paternity and adoption leave. Women are seen as the primary carers, but men can be carers as well. I have known male colleagues who were responsible for taking children to and from school because their working hours were more flexible than their wife's.
How many disciplines within STEM does your work apply to?
My research has been in theoretical and computational chemistry, but applied to a variety of subjects including astronomy (interstellar molecules), materials science and biochemistry (DNA oligomers).
I have taught on courses in astronomy, planetary science, physics, analytical science, inorganic chemistry and computational chemistry.