The BioIndustry Association, the trade association for innovative life sciences in the UK, hosted a ‘Women in Biotech Networking Evening’ at Arnold & Porter in London. Meg Booth attended the event, which aimed to provide a platform to discuss diversity in the life sciences sector.
The event was chaired by Jacqueline Mulryne, EU Life Sciences Counsel at Arnold & Porter, and featured a talks from Naomi Weir, the Deputy Director of the ‘Campaign for Science and Engineering’ (CaSE) and Charlotte Frappell, Digital Communications Associate Director at AstraZeneca.
Naomi discussed CaSE’s recently published policy review on Diversity. CaSE is the UK’s leading independent advocate for science and engineering whose mission is to ensure that the UK has the skills, funding and policies to enable science and engineering to thrive. They represent over 110 scientific organisations such as businesses, academic institutions and research charities. As part of their work, CaSE engage with and inform policy makers, as well as campaigning for issues that affect their membership. Naomi discussed their recent review aimed at improving diversity and inclusion in STEM subjects, as well as making recommendations to government on how this can be achieved. The two recommendations made by the review were:
- Embed diversity and inclusion throughout a joined-up careers strategy and do more to encourage flexible working practices and career pathways.
- Decisive action on diversity data
The report contains some interesting statistics regarding the gender gaps of university undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in STEM subjects, with only 10% of Computer Sciences courses being made up of women. In biology, the gap is the other way, with on average 75% of undergraduate cohorts studying Biology degrees being women. This is an intriguing set of statistics, particularly as the fields of Biology and Computer Sciences merge and it is becoming increasingly important for biologist to have an understanding of computer programming to enable analysis of large dataset, i.e. in genomics.
Charlotte, from AstraZeneca, discussed her personal experiences of unconscious bias and feeling like she “didn’t belong” in science during her progression through university and her career to date. She stated that she finally felt like she belonged in the industry in her role with AstraZeneca thanks to their diversity policy.
Finally, there was a panel discussion chaired by Jacqueline, with a lot of interesting discussions and questions for the speakers. There was a lot of discussion about gender diversity in top corporate roles or more senior roles, as well as unconscious bias in relation to recruitment and gender pay gaps. Interestingly or perhaps worryingly, women are less likely to promote other women or recommend other women for suitable roles/positions of responsibility. It was suggested that women need to get better at sponsoring other women for altruistic reasons and there needs to be better mentorship within the industry.
Naomi told the audience to challenge themselves and do something that terrifies them. Based on anecdotal evidence and personal experiences she found that people refuse to sign up to events or giving talks because they don’t think they’re good enough. So she challenged the audience to take on roles or responsibilities that take you out of your comfort zone.
On Tuesday 25th September, Meg and Simon Ambroz will attend a ‘Diversity in Life Sciences: Women in Research’ event at Mills & Reeve. It is important that both men and women are actively involved in ‘Women in…’ events as education and awareness amongst the entire work force will enable progression.
At Appleyard Lees we are passionate about promoting diversity and inclusion. We are proud to be signatories to the IP Inclusive Charter which has been established by an association of organisations within the IP sector to promote equality, diversity and inclusion.
