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This is a guest post by Suzanne Pilaar Birch, a postdoctoral fellow in archaeology at Brown University where her research focuses on human response to climate change in the past. She is one-fourth of the Trowelblazers team, who are working hard to make sure that the contributions of women in the fields of archaeology, geology,…

One evening over a glass of wine, a very lovely lady called Anna Zecharia came out with a very wonderful idea. “ScienceGrrl should have local gatherings. Chapters.” We didn’t need to discuss it, we recognised it for the stroke of genius it was. It went straight into the strategy. What I didn’t foresee is quite…

The royal family are set to be inundated with gifts once William and Kate’s child is born. But before buying presents, should people wait and see if the baby is a boy or a girl? Here is a guest blog post by Melissa Hines, Professor of Psychology, University of Cambridge, a specialist in child gender…

Today the Business, Innovation and Skills Committee published its report of the enquiry into Women in the Workplace, which drew on 103 written submissions, oral evidence from 46 witnesses, and many more responses to discussions on Woman’s Hour and Mumsnet. It’s a thorough report, and also a well-written and engaging read. However, those who live…

I love how even the lab’s solutions room can provoke a state of wonder in someone who has never set foot in a library of chemicals before. The -80C freezer also gets a good reaction. That’s before we’re anywhere near the electrophysiology rig and confocal microscope. Having the chance to open someone’s eyes to the…

It’s easy to imagine the academic world at the turn of the 20th Century, right? A world closed to all but the most privileged of men – whiskered gentlemen in stiff suits, pipe smoke and port, explorers with a whiff of pith helmet about them. Imagine, then, arriving on the island of Crete in 1904…

Pictured left to right: Becky John of WhoMadeYourPants, Liz Bonnin of BBCs ‘Bang Goes the Theory’ and ‘Stargazing Live’ and Heather Williams of ScienceGrrl, each holding a pair of pants which make up our new unique product. Thanks to the Science Museum for permission to also feature the model of the Hubble Space Telescope, in…

One of the aims of the ScienceGrrl 2013 calendar (now sold out, sorry!) was to show young women that science is for people just like them, and hopefully inspire them to pursue a career in science. But did we manage it? I asked the Physics Girlies at Holly Lodge Girls’ College in Liverpool what they…

Last week I was sorting through my ScienceGrrl e-mail and came across a really encouraging message from a lady who’d just returned to study Maths in her 50s. I thought it sounded like she had a story to tell, and asked her to write a blog for us. Which she did. I give you –…

I’m really chuffed – as we say in Yorkshire – to introduce this guest post from Amy Buchanan-Hughes, founder of The African Science Truck Experience (TASTE). TASTE runs a mobile science laboratory in rural Uganda so that students in underprivileged secondary schools can get a hands-on experience of science. According to an earlier post on…

ScienceGrrl started out as a reaction to *that* EC video, which spawned the idea to create a series of images representing who female scientists are and what they do – the ScienceGrrl 2013 calendar. In the process we collected a network of people who are passionate about passing on their love of science, technology, engineering…

International Women’s Day celebrates the achievements of women worldwide. In Russia (and elsewhere, I believe) it’s a public holiday. Here at ScienceGrrl, we wanted to take the opportunity this presented to highlight the great work that women are doing in science. The recent WISE report highlighted that only 13% of the STEM workforce are women,…

Ladies and gentlemen, may I present Isla Stevens, who will now regale us with merry tales of Friday’s first ever ScienceGrrl AGM. Over to you, Isla! Last Friday I was lucky enough to be able to fit in a trip to London for the first ever ScienceGrrl AGM – calendars, tote bags and posters everywhere.…

The alarm went off at 8.00am which, although unusual for a Saturday, was not begrudged; it was the ScienceGrrl strategy consultation day. Today we would find out what people thought of us, what we should be doing and would start thinking seriously about our future. I knew we needed to ask people what they wanted…

We’re very excited about the projects that we will be able to invest in using the proceeds from the sale of the ScienceGrrl calendar 2013. We currently have a consultation open to help guide what we should be doing, but have already committed to one particular project – we’ll be funding a team of 6…