Women in high positions in science are scarce. Jessica Dempsey, director of ASTRON, knows this better than anyone. She wants to turn that tide and is therefore appealing to female interested parties today, on International Women’s Day, to come and work for her.
Since taking over as head of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Australian Jessica Demsey has had a clear goal in mind: making science more attractive to women. “As a woman at the top of radio astronomy, you look around and realize that you are the only one. That is a difficult place to be and there must be room for improvement,” she said in 2022 upon her appointment.
She has now been at the helm for almost two years and says she is steering quite against the current. “We have succeeded in giving women equal experiences in other fields, but this is lagging behind in science. More specifically in the technological branch of science. We have to change that. The time is over when we did not want representation of women. “
The women sometimes embark on a scientific or technical career, but are discouraged, according to Dempsey. “What we know so far is that the share of women in science, including radio astronomy, is 22 to 23 percent. But the higher you look on the career ladder, the lower that percentage becomes. So low that if you At the level of professors or directors, only a few percent are women. So we lose many women along the way as a kind of ‘leaky pipeline’.”
And yet women are desperately needed. According to Dempsey, a mixed team of men and women provides more creative solutions and people with different backgrounds and opinions can come to better insights together.
Women should not replace men, but the ratio should be balanced. “If we attract more women, more will reach the top. From a female share of 40 percent, you create a system that is self-sustaining and balanced.”
But when it comes to finding these women to reach the 40 percent mark, she notices how difficult it is. “I really am struggle to find suitable candidates,” says Dempsey. This is how she ended up with employment agencies that told her that the women she was looking for did not exist.
How is that possible? Dempsey went looking for other entrepreneurs with whom she could work together. “Companies that put together specific programs to get women back into the field and within institutions like ours.”
The most important thing these companies do is give women confidence and remove their doubts. Because, according to Dempsey, many women subconsciously think that they cannot do something. She also received that support when she needed it.
“I was lucky enough to have good mentors at the time,” Dempsey looks back on the start of her career. “A few influential men who saw talent in me and helped me develop it further. That’s why mentoring is a good way to connect women to science and technology and help them take steps in that career.”
To strengthen the confidence of girls, she is inviting students from different schools this week to both the ScienceHub in Dwingeloo and ASTRON itself to get acquainted with science. “We take them by the hand and tell them that if that’s what they want, they can be that way too. I’m willing to remove all their barriers.”