The UK Government and the EU are now doing more to encourage women to work in science and technology. This section contains news of several recent projects :
Ways for women to break through the glass ceiling in traditionally male dominated professions are outlined in a recently published handbook. "Cracking It!" is full of practical tips and realistic strategies for women working in the field of science, engineering and technology. It is based on the experiences of those who have succeeded. Speaking at the launch in London, the President of the Board of Trade, Margaret Beckett said:
"I welcome this book particularly as the Cabinet Minister with responsibility for Science, because I think it will do much to support, encourage and retain women working in these areas. The fact that women are still under-represented in these sectors does not help our competitiveness. We need to promote a balanced workforce to ensure that the talents that women can provide are utilised to the full. I see this book as providing a valuable contribution towards that aim."
"Cracking It!" (ISBN 1 840190000) has 220 pages. It was written by Josephine Warrior and costs £10.99 + £1.20 postage and packing, from:
Training Publications Ltd, P.O. Box 75, Stockport, SK4 1PH.
Tel: (0161) 480 5285 Fax: (0161) 474 7502
The new dialogue between women and Government took an important step forward at the end of October as Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Social Security Secretary, launched a new Internet website for women where women will be able to make an effective contribution to the discussion with Government on the issues that concern them.
The new website outlines the roles and objectives of the Minister for Women, carries details of current announcements and speeches, and allows women to pass on their views on issues that concern them. Views will also be sought on a range of specific issues - the first of these being how women meet their childcare needs.
Responses to the website will be collated by the Women's Unit and passed on
to the Ministers for Women. All responses will be dealt with in confidence,
although a summary will be made public.
WITEC
is a European network of organisations and
individuals working for the motivation, development and support of women in
science, engineering and technology (SET). In 1996 WITEC produced a
European Handbook of Women Experts in Science, Engineering and Technology.
This highlighted the need for an on-line database which could be easily updated, expanded and accessed. With support from the EC, WITEC has now launched this database of Women Experts on the World Wide Web at http://www.shu.ac.uk/witec.
WITEC Secretariat/UK,Sheffield Hallam University, Heriot House, Sheffield S1 1WB
tel. +44 (0) 114 2532041 fax. +44 (0) 114 2532046 e-mail: [email protected]
What is AWiSE?
http://www.awise.org
The idea of AWiSE, the Association for Women in Science and Engineering,
arose from the report The Rising Tide (HMSO, 1994), commissioned by the
Office of Science and Technology, on how women's potential could best be
realised in the sciences, engineering and technologies (SET).
Our aims To advance the participation of girls and women in the sciences, from biomedicine to mathematics and the social sciences, in engineering, and in the technologies, in all areas and at all levels, by:
The DTI is encouraging professional institutions to use the Web to organise membership and activities and share information, and we are developing our Web site to do this. It will include news and views, and information on careers - facilities for education, training and retraining, and the job market, linking with WISDOM (the Wellcome Information Service Databases on Medicine) and related databases, with the Women Returners Network (WRN). etc. The Web site will also include interactive personal and career development programs (PDP) tailored for women on the Web. We also publish a quarterly (paper) newsletter for those who support our aims, but prefer not to use the Web.
To join AWiSE, (men can be associate members, and there is corporate or reciprocal membership for organisations) visit our Web site, or write or e-mail our Administrator:
Dr Christine Linfield , Beech Cottage, Barnecourt , Moretonhampstead,
Newton Abbot, Devon TQ13 8Q tel/fax 01647 221316
email: [email protected]
The AWiSE National Office is at One Park Square West, LONDON, NW1 4LJ
tel 0171 935 3282/5202 fax 0171 935 0736 [email protected]
Dr Joan Mason, 12 Hills Avenue, Cambridge CB1 4XA, UK
tel 01223 247827 fax 01223 510289 [email protected]k
The January 1998 issue of 'Physics World' contained news of the 1998 Institute of Physics awards, one of which was awarded to one of the BCA Founder members, Lesley Dent Glasser. The citation reads in part:
Lesley Glasser, director of SATRO North Scotland at the University of Aberdeen, wins the Kelvin medal and prize for her outstanding and prolonged contribution to the public understanding of physics, particularly in Scotland, by the managing of financial, human and technological; resources required for running SATRO North Scotland and for organizing several scientific exhibitions and festivals including SATROSPHERE, Techfest and Science on the Move.
For the last ten years SATRO North Scotland has helped to run extra curricular activities for school children and promoted the Institute of Physics schools lecture tour. The team also helped to set up a travelling hands on exhibition on the theme of light. In 1988 she set up SATROSPHERE, a hands on science centre in Aberdeen which now attracts 50,000 visitors a year. It has become one of the most imaginative and entrepreneurial of the UK Science Centres. Five years later she helped to establish TechFest, Aberdeen's annual science and technology festival. In 1995 she formed another touring exhibition Science on the Move; since then she has supported the formation of 'Live Wire' a science drama company.
Later in January I received a letter from John Robertson, University of Leeds, who writes:
'There's Life after retirement from Crystallography'
"Lesley Glasser was an active and well-connected crystallographer in Aberdeen University; she was the author of a nice introductory text on crystallography ('Crystallography and its Applications', Van Nostrand 1997 ) which included sections on electron diffraction and the solid state. She was the main local organiser of the one conference of the X-Ray Analysis Group (XRAG, of the Institute of Physics, one of the forerunners of the BCA) which took place in Aberdeen, (memorable , because, owing to the income having started to exceed the expenses, visibly, during the running of the meeting, each of the participants were handed back a £1 note, before the conference closed; nothing like that had ever happened before, or has done so since.) More seriously Lesley had a period (three years I think) as Secretary of XRAG, when she took over that post from me. So you see she really is one of our crystallographic family. However, on taking early retirement form her post as a Reader in Chemistry in the University of Aberdeen, she decided to leave crystallography itself, and got involved with this novel body called SATRO."
John goes on to suggest I ask her for a short article on what a SATRO is and does... and what her recommendations might be for other retiring crystallographers.
Editor's Note: Lesley also used to market 'Crystpacks', a teaching aid consisting of sets of transparent spheres stuck together in layers which could be fitted together to form crystal structures. She collaborated on the production of a computer animated film 'Silicates in Solution' projected during the IUCr meeting in Hamburg in 1984 and was also responsible for the design of a set of teaching programs for the BBC micro, 'Atomic Packing and Crystal Structure' later marketed by the Institute of Materials, and translated for the PC.
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