Suffrage, art and science

The first International Women's Day was held on March 19, 1911, to call attention to the fact that women the world over had limited (if any) rights to work, to vote, to be trained, or to hold public office. Campaigners aimed to bring an end to the discrimination. A hundred years on, women are still underrepresented at the highest levels of science, despite there being equality in the numbers of PhDs and post-docs, at least in the life sciences. The Medical Research Council (MRC) has published a book, Suffrage Science, to celebrate the centenary and the achievements of women scientists. On Wednesday night (March 9), as part of the book's official launch, the MRC held a debate, entitled "Are Women Changing Science?" and reception at the Institute for Contemporary Arts in London. A panel of remarkable women discussed the role of women in science, the problems they have personally faced, ...