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Professor
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
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Image courtesy of University of Bath
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I am a ninth generation Quaker. Quakerism in Britain is a religion first of all, that says it's much more important how you lead your life, than what you say you believe. So there isn't great emphasis on dogma, statements of faith, in fact there's no emphasis on those. It's also a religion that believes there's something good, holy, positive in everybody; literally everybody, and one tries to find that and speak to it. Because of that bit of good in you, each person can have a direct communion with God without an intermediary like a priest. It's a very good basis for being a manager of people.
But I also have quite a strong streak of service in me. This may be my Quaker background, or it may be the way women were brought up in my generation. Although I'm "retired", I'm doing a lot of voluntary work; but only the things which interest me. It keeps me very busy and it's all unpaid. It's nice to rotate them.
I am involved in recruiting a new Chief Executive for a Quaker charity. I'm also sitting on a committee to judge sites for a large radio telescope. A technical judgment of sites where the choice is between Australia and South Africa.
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Professor
Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
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Image courtesy of
Dept of Physics (Astro Physics)
University of Oxford
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There are some horrible statistics surrounding the women who do Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degrees in Scotland. Of those women, nearly ¾ leave the field compared to less than half the men. At the same time the ICT, Energy and Green industries are all saying, "Look, we're heading up for an enormous skill shortage in the very near future." So the Country can't afford that wastage; to lose a large chunk of its talent. Somehow they need to keep those women.
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When I started doing science, round about age 12, it became clear that I was good at it; that I could do it. Particularly the physical sciences; biological sciences never really grabbed me. Physical science I could do; I found it interesting, enjoyed it, found it easy.
I went away went to boarding school in England, a Quaker school. I had several good teachers at secondary school, particularly post age 13, there was a good English teacher and a good Physics teacher. By that stage I was already clear I was going to be a scientist, so having a good teacher means you don't change that.
That was re-enforced in 1957 when the Soviets put up the first satellite, Sputnik. That was a great shock to people in the UK and US. We thought that we were technologically superior to the Soviets, but we couldn't have put up a satellite. So suddenly there was great emphasis on people doing Science and Engineering. Anybody who was half good at it was encouraged, and of course I was already heading that way.
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My best moment, would be the discovery of Pulsars. Another being when the decision was taken about Pluto not being a planet. I got called in to facilitate the meetings about that, because I could handle a large audience, a large crowd. I'm proud how I turned around a tricky situation there.
I was also asked to do a big lecture for the Quakers. I did it on the Ministry of People who are wounded, who hurt. Broken for life. I reckon that was a good piece of work. It's wounded in every sense of the word. The title of the book is Broken for Life, and the publisher is Quaker Home Service and it was published 1 January 1989.
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My Core values are Integrity, Truthfulness and Fairness. That applies partly to people, partly to experimental data. It's very tempting to make your data fit your pet model, but you mustn't do that. Sometimes it's difficult not to make your data fit. I've not been tempted, but I've seen other people do it.
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If we were in America, I would say my heritage is Scots/Irish. The strongest element in my heritage is the community which has lived in both South West Scotland and North East Ireland, spanning that narrow band of water between that community, going back and forth. I've spent time in both. But I'm not British, if that means English, as it often does in the US.
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Also I'm a judge of a Science Book Prize. 102 books arrived in my office on Science; all branches of Science, including Epigenetics. This morning I was reading about Information Theory. I'm learning a lot. Last night, I was reading about Epigenetics.
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Very often the media highlights women in the wrong way. L'Oreal have been funding women in Science for some of their prizes for a number of years. At school level, the Institute of Physics is providing quite a lot of support for schools, with all sorts of resource material for Teachers. A strong component of that is about women. Institute of Physics has had a very successful Programme; if I can remember the statistics, the number of kids doing AS level in their partner schools has increased by 43%, and the number of girls has gone up 119% for Physics. Now, that's in the schools they reach; their partner schools. Lots of schools they don't reach, because they're too stretched to even bother to join, but it can be done.
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I have no role models for today, because I didn't have any when I was a younger woman. I don't think in that way. Although I do observe other women from my generation, particularly in my area of science, to see how they have or haven't coped. Most of us have had it tough. It would've been nice to have had a role model or a mentor. I have had neither and it's been lonely at times. It helps if you know what you want to do; if you're swithering a bit, you can be put off by obstacles. However, to some extent obstacles help to sort your priority.
"Most of the way, I've opened the doors myself. Well, I wouldn't be here if I didn't have determination and know who I was. Because there were so few women in my field, I have been the only woman most of my life, or at least the most senior woman in a place."
I have certainly done extremely well out of not getting the Nobel. The Nobel happened at the time when feminism was growing up. So I've been carried on a wave of feminism and a wave of sympathy. I've got every other prize that's moved since, so I've not done badly.
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I first realised women were treated differently at 18 months! I was the eldest child, my brother was born 18 months after me. My parents were very even handed, but there were comments from others, "It's so wonderful that Mrs. Bell's had a son." It was a typical mindset in Northern Ireland at that time; just one of the facts of life.
"One of the very interesting things to study is the proportion of women astronomers when looking around the world. It varies significantly. The English speaking countries all cluster below the world average. The country that tops the table is Argentina, 37% of its astronomers are female, and at the bottom is Japan at 6%. It's fascinating as to why there is this range. There is no one reason; different cultures have different aspects on what's appropriate for women to do."
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There have been all sorts of initiatives, many, many initiatives. They have usually been started by women, and they don't always last. Usually because the key woman moves on or something, and the initiatives are limited and isolated, not linked to other ones. One of the things we're keen to see in Scotland, in this Strategy for Women in Science, is that initiatives are joined up and that there is a Government Level Strategy, so that they reinforce each other and can be assessed to see what works and what doesn't.
Recently, for a year and a half, I've been leading an inquiry about women in Science Technology and Mathematics in Scotland, for The Royal Society of Edinburgh. The statistics are probably much the same for the rest of the UK. The interesting thing about Scotland is this fairly coherent unit has links with Government, so there is some possibility of Scottish Government accepting the need for a strategic plan to improve the number of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM).
The next big job is getting out this report on women in STEM.
Interestingly the NHS, because it's now dominated by women, has developed a lot of part time working, flexible working and job share. That's an entirely respectable way of working. Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) have yet to do that. They're saying, "We can't do it", but they probably said that in the NHS at one point.
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Advice
I think women are still a bit risk-averse, so my biggest message is to give it a go! It's well worth doing, and they will probably surprise themselves. It's huge fun being a Scientist. It's very interesting, very rewarding, and exciting at times.
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Woman on a Mission
Diversity and Leadership Consultant
Inspirational Speaker
MRI, FRSA
Graduate Woman of the Year Lunch
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