Image credit: Reuters/National Photo Company Collection/Library of Congress
To celebrate Women’s History Month and British Science Week 2020, we asked some of our staff and STEM Ambassadors that question and here’s what they said…
First up is the museum’s Contemporary Science Programme Coordinator, Georgina Wells, with a literary hero:
Next is STEM Ambassador and Cardiovascular Research Scientist, Nicola Edwards, who’s based at Manchester Metropolitan University. She didn’t know any female scientists growing up but got inspiration from the women in her family:
Lewis Pollard is one of the museum’s Associate Curators. The women who inspire him are those who write about what the future could be like:
Along with her sister, Rachel Beattie co-founded Careaux, a womenswear brand. The brand combines her dual passions of fashion and maths, and she’s also a STEM Ambassador. Her inspiration also comes from her family:
Abi Wilson is the museum’s other Associate Curator. Her inspiring choice is a local historic female engineer whose birthday just happens to fall on International Women’s Day:
Next is Cassie-Jo Gormley, who is the STEM Ambassador Support Coordinator. She chose a pop culture icon:
Our final video featured Onyebuchi Ezeugwa, a recent Chemical Engineering graduate who has just started volunteering for the museum. She has an amazing story of how she was supported and encouraged by women in her home country of Nigeria:
If this series has inspired you or someone you know to consider a career or study in science, technology, engineering or maths, you can explore opportunities at the Careers Service and Apprenticeships. If you want to be the inspiration yourself, why not become a STEM Ambassador and encourage the next generation of scientists, engineers and researchers? You can read more about the STEM Ambassador programme here.
We’d also love to hear about any women in STEM who have inspired you. Leave a comment below or find us on social media at Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.
I hope it’s ok to post this here but for further inspiring women you could do worse than following @WomenNASA on Twitter for astronauts and engineers, while @OnThisDayShe often features women in STEM alongside other incredible women from history. Women’s achievements are so often ignored in history and we should redress the balance. Thank you so much for sharing your staff’s tales of women who inspired them.