Top female scientists blast social media’s influencer culture
Australia’s leading female physicists want more recognition for women’s scientific achievements as young girls can’t name Nobel Prize winner.
NSW
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Social media influencers like Kim Kardashian are household names but some of Australia’s top female physicists are frustrated most girls have no idea Australia has a female Nobel prize winner.
Scientists working at Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) said while there’s nothing wrong with following influencers, there needs to be more recognition for women in science.
“When a sports figure wins a cup it becomes big news, or when Kim Kardashian and Kanye West get a divorce … when I think of the appointment of Cathy Foley as chief scientist that should be a part of that news,” ANSTO’s human health research leader Dr Mitra Safevi-Naeini said.
“The achievement of women in science and technology should be something that we celebrate.”
Participation rates for students in advanced maths and science are dangerously low — girls made up just 23 per cent of the HSC physics cohort last year and only 32 per cent of girls enrolled in advanced or extension mathematics, compared to 45 per cent of boys.
In 2016 just 29 per cent of those going to university to study physics were women.
ANSTO’s Group Executive Nuclear Precinct Pamela Naidoo-Ameglio said she wished more teenage girls would celebrate scientists as role models.
“There are Instagram influencers with millions of followers, but not many teenagers would recognise the name of Australian Nobel prize recipient Professor Elizabeth Blackburn,” Ms Naidoo-Ameglio said.
“I’m not saying there’s not a skill to learning dance routines, but I just wish the woman who, for example, won a Nobel prize following DNA breakthroughs that changed the way we treat cancer, also had a bit more recognition among young women.”
Dr Safavi-Naeini and her colleague Dr Ceri Brenner, head of accelerator science, are hoping to use their social media platforms to encourage girls to pursue careers in science.
“I’m now in a position of influence and I want to use that position for good,” Dr Brenner said.
Dr Brenner blends fitness and style content with her science posts on her Instagram and hopes girls can see science as a career where they can still enjoy being feminine.
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