This year, we celebrated the tenth anniversary of the Suffrage Science awards, which recognises women in science for their outstanding scientific research, communication work, and support of women in STEM. The scheme, founded by Prof Dame Amanda Fisher and Vivienne Parry, is divided into three strands (life sciences, engineering & physical sciences, and maths & computing), and boasts a community of 160 past and present awardees.
To further commemorate this milestone, the MRC LMS launched ‘The Suffrage Science Podcast: How women are changing science’, hosted by Dr Kat Arney and produced by First Create The Media, with audio production by Georgia Mills.
In the ten-episode series, which concluded on Monday 10th May, Suffrage Science awardees and key figures in the scheme reflected on their journeys in science, as well as progress made and challenges still to be addressed.
The series, which features former Chief Medical Officer Dame Sally Davies, space scientist Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock and women’s rights activist Dr Helen Pankhurst, has amassed over 1,600 downloads so far.
Gege Li, who reviewed the podcast in New Scientist, said: “Listening to Fisher and other guests, I felt connected to them through our shared struggles as women and the recognition of how deeply gender discrimination is etched into every aspect of our experience. But underlying this solidarity, a tough message remains: we haven’t made the progress in improving prospects for women that we like to think we have, says Fisher. For example, there is much to be done in addressing issues faced by women from ethnic minority backgrounds.”
You can listen to all episodes of The Suffrage Science Podcast on Podbean, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Here are some of our favourite quotes from the series:
