We all have stereotypes of one another, a certain expectation we make of people as soon as we find out information about them. Like what degree they’re on, what part of the world they grew up in, what their parents do, if they’re from “down south” or “up north” (or potentially worse, Fife!). The list is endless, and we’re arguably all guilty of forming preconceptions. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

The idea that people in STEM subjects (that is, science, technology, engineering, or maths) are harsh, cold, robotic humanoids is completely incorrect. Yet so many of us - myself included - find ourselves thinking this way. As an astrophysicist, I would joke at parties that I have no social skills and can’t write essays, and arts students would laugh. Equally, there are stereotypes, particularly in a university setting, where art students are seen as “less smart” or “less employable” than STEM students. None of these assumptions are explicitly true, but when we meet someone who backs up these stereotypes, our suspicions are confirmed. We can say, “Ha! I was right!”, and most university students I’ve met seem to enjoy that feeling - or is that my own bias speaking? 

At a volunteering school day that I attended in 2019, run by the Women in STEM Society (or WiSTEM for short) here at Glasgow, one of the women who organised the event asked a room of 11-year-old children to picture a nurse and picture a builder in their heads. From my memory, the vast majority of the class, if not the entire class, said they pictured a female nurse and a male builder. The stereotypes we all have of one another are formed at this crucial stage of growing up. The human brain astoundingly and frustratingly excels at recognising patterns, and children are incredibly sponge-like in their ability to soak up everything they see and hear. Thus, it is important to be wary of the way that gender roles are presented to them through anything they consume. 

You can argue that it doesn’t make a difference who does a certain job, but I feel workforces (particularly services such as nursing, or councils and governments), should represent the community in which it operates - whether that’s through gender, race, ethnicity, or any other factor. In the case of the UK gender split, this should be approximately a 50/50 split. Yet according to the Royal Nurses College, 9 out of every 10 nurses are women. But why? Some say that it’s a more “feminine” job, to be a caregiver, to look after people. But men are caring too, as my friends and family show me every day. A simple Google search of life quality in Scandinavian countries (who are renowned for their progressive stances towards achieving gender equality) will show you that it makes everybody happier. Men are encouraged to take paternity leave, people are encouraged to spend their long holidays away from work with family, and a healthy work-life balance is key to life there.

I feel the key to changing the outdated attitudes in our society is in educating the youngest generation. The WiSTEM society aims to do what we can to reduce stereotypes that are formed in the primary school years by going to schools in deprived areas of Glasgow and running STEM activities. These activities provide a fun day for the school pupils, a day off for the teachers, and a chance to show young people that scientists can be anyone. The aim of these school days is not to brainwash them all into science. Of course not, it’s not for everyone! But even if what we do as a student society encourages one young girl to learn to code, or take Higher Chemistry, that is a win for me. I had one female physics teacher in my secondary school and trust me, as a fourth-year physics student, having one person you can somehow relate to and look up to makes a difference. Without such a person, it can make you feel like you don’t have a place in the world you want to be in, and this applies to every marginalised group. In a nutshell, representation matters. A lack of female teachers in STEM subjects and STEM careers is off-putting to young girls when choosing their subject choices. In my current year, only 34% of students on the same degree as me are female, and only 18% of 4th years on a pure Physics Master's degree are female. And in terms of further progression, in UK universities only 17% of science professors are women. The lack of female role models in STEM can often make young women feel that STEM isn’t even an option for them, which is why the work that WiSTEM does is vital.

It’s easy to feel like we live in some perfect country. Especially with Scotland’s appearance in media being beautiful hills and stretching coastlines alongside favourable social benefits such as free school meals, free higher education, free prescriptions, and other basic human rights coverage that some countries haven’t quite grasped yet. Scotland feels like it wants to be Scandinavian, but for whatever reasons your politics point towards, it has fallen short of the Nordic-god-level society of happy people, gender equality, and a healthy work-life balance. In Scotland, and the UK altogether, it will take many more years of education and improved representation to achieve true gender equality and change public attitudes. But that doesn’t make it something unattainable, or that isn’t worth our effort. If we encourage each other to be the best versions of ourselves, to be open-minded, and celebrate the things we excel at and enjoy, imagine how colourful, diverse, and interesting our workplaces would become. So, maybe it’s time to stop teasing your flatmate for being from Fife?