Great article Sarah! This rings true to me on many levels, and brings back very unsavoury memories of my time as a university lecturer in engineering. The archetypal male genius does indeed sit there in our group consciousness, imprinting our girls with the subliminal message “you cannot be this because you are not male”.

You wouldn’t believe the number of times I heard “You don’t look like a scientist!” The fact that this was most people’s knee-jerk reaction to me is a clear expression of their subconscious definition of scientist. I certainly didn’t fit that stereotype, and never would, no matter how many PhDs I had!

Unfortunately, the #metooSTEM issue is also one I encountered on too many occasions. While most men were professional, there were too many who weren’t, and this did contribute to my leaving science, as it has with many women.

We have to change the obsolete subconscious operating system that perpetuates these unacceptable patterns of behaviour, and the hidden patriarchal definitions that still make a female scientist a surprise.