“On the 10th December each year the Nobel prizes are awarded. This year all eyes have been on Malala Yousafzai as she collects her prize for peace. But she’s not the only woman, May-Britt Moser won the prize for medicine, alongside her husband Edvard Moser.
Since its inception roughly five percent of Nobel prize winners have been female – not an inspiring percentage. Are there just not enough women in the running or is the work of those that are there being overlooked? Either way, what this results in is a lack of female role models for young scientists. And not even an army of Lego women in white coats can overcome that.
It worries me that judging panels suffer from unconscious bias and are using “a lack of female entrants” as a way of avoiding questioning themselves. To get rid of this excuse let’s all commit to entering one award in 2015. Big or small, win it or not, putting ourselves forward puts us in the race. And makes it very difficult to continue to ignore us.”
by Harriet Minter, Editor The Guardian Women in Leadership Network
@harrietminter