Women in Climate (WiC) network
Women in Climate (WiC) network
Posted by Penny Maher
15 September 2025In July we were joined by Professor Tamara Galloway who has had a fascinating career studying the health effects of priority pollutants (crude oil, plastics and chemical additives) on humans and wildlife. Her research has had far-reaching impacts on our understanding of pollutants and environmental and human health.
Tamara describes herself as having a non-linear career. After completing her PhD in Scotland, she took a nine-year career break and moved to London and then to Cornwall with her family. Tamara reflected that a career in science seemed a long-way-off during her career break but was brought back into realm of science when she by chance met the biochemist and Nobel prize winner Peter Mitchell at a party.
This led to a research position at the Glynn Research Institute in Bodmin and ultimately a lectureship at Plymouth University where she supervised her first PhD student. From there she was head hunted to join the University of Exeter in 2007 and built an impressive catalogue of papers and made a big impact on understanding the health impacts from plastic additives (such as Bisphenol A). Her work on demonstrating the devastating impact of plastic pollution was acknowledged when she was awarded an OBE in 2019 in the Queenâs Birthday Honours List.
While working with Peter Mitchell, Tamara had access to many distinguished Professors and Nobel Laureates. She made a record of some advice given to her from the Laureates while working at the Glynn Research Institute. Notably the Laureates were male, and their perspective might not resonate in the same way for female, non-binary and male scientists today.
Tamara also gained insights during her career that could help aspiring scientists and academics:
Some lessons Tamara learnt during her career were:
We discussed different aspects of being a woman in science and Tamara shared with us her experience of being a woman in science and some of the challenges and barriers of working scientist who is also a mother. We acknowledge this perspective is from a cis women sharing her experiences. It may not resonate with everyone. In the late 1980âs and 1990s Tamara observed many unfair professional expectations. A profound one for her, was that there were no workplace protections for her job when she went on maternity leave. So there was no job to return to after starting a family.
The idea of part-time or flexible working was not supported, and the workplace culture fostered the idea that a women scientist should be at home. The lack of flexibility in the workplace particularly applied to Tamara, and she felt this is a great hinderance to female scientists. It is recognised today that many organisations offer hybrid and flexible working, and the situation has improved. However, women in science and academia still face many barriers, as evidenced by their underrepresentation in the overall STEM workforce, especially in senior roles1. Further efforts are needed to retain women in STEM professions2.
We also talked about current attitudes and culture and workplaces. One theme that often comes up in Women in Climate is âWhy do women in their early-to-mid careers leave scienceâ?
While access to job protection and maternity leave has significantly improved, the pervasive “leaky pipeline” problem persists. Women remain highly underrepresented in most senior roles, and the gender pay gap in STEM widened from 19.4% to 28% in 2022 in the UK3. We are still fighting; as Government statistics from 2023 reveal that women now represent about 26% of the UK’s STEM workforce, which is an overall decrease in the percentage of women making up core-STEM workforce 4 5. However, representation varies widely across professions. There is near gender parity among science professionals, with women representing 40-50% of the workforce, while women only represent 12.4% of engineering professionals3.
At times in the meeting there was the sentiment that women have it better now than we do before. This is certainly true in terms of worker protections, maternity leave and access to nursery for young children (though the expense of this is often a challenge for families). However, some of the barriers women face in STEM professions are not new such as harassment and bullying, a lack of a sense of belonging, differences in pay 6, limited career progressions, career stagnation, and a lack of access to opportunities.
A recent report on women in tech highlighted that only 3% of survey responses gave âcaregivingâ as the primary reason for women leaving the tech industry, indicating workplace barriers lead to women leaving tech professions7. This is in reflection to a government story on supporting women back into STEM professions that solely focus on women leaving STEM careers because of careering responsibilities8.. This suggests the barriers facing women are complex and span beyond work-life balance challenges and personal trade-offs7 to include structural and systemic workplace issues and bias7, cultural, social, and early career barriers and biases and stereotypes5 9 10 and intersectional barriers. Further data is needed to understand the barriers women face and how women can be supported.
There is a new generation of women in science facing challenges and barriers in science and academia, and this is at the heart of what WiC want to challenge, discuss and support each other in. We need to find a way to make academic and science in general, more welcoming to women and support them as they progress in their careers. Despite the challenges, women want to work in STEM roles, and those who choose STEM careers join the over 1.3 million women already in the UK STEM workforce4. A career in STEM offers many benefits for women6 and can be highly rewarding while also addressing the shortage of people with STEM skills in the UK10.
References:
1 A picture of the UK scientific workforce https://royalsociety.org/news-resources/projects/uk-scientific-workforce-report/
2 Women in STEM Statistics https://www.stemwomen.com/women-in-stem-percentages-of-women-in-stem-statistics
3 Job market for women in STEM https://www.stemwomen.com/job-market-for-women-in-stem
4 Updated workforce statistics â September 2023 https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/updated-workforce-statistics-september-2023/
5 Women in STEM: Breaking Barriers, Inspiring Change, and Shaping the Future https://www.merrittrecruitment.com/blog/2025/06/women-in-stem-breaking-barriers-inspiring-change-and-shaping-the-future?source=bing.com
6 Three trouble spots facing women in scienceâand how we can tackle them https://www.science.org/content/article/three-trouble-spots-facing-women-science-and-how-we-can-tackle-them
7 2025 Lovelace report https://www.wibf.org.uk/news/the-hidden-cost-of-losing-women-in-tech-3-5-billion-a-year/#:~:text=The%202025%20Lovelace%20Report%2C%20named%20after%20pioneering%20computer,of%20personal%20choices%2C%20but%20because%20of%20systemic%20failure.
8 News story More women to be supported back into STEM jobs in Government-backed training https://www.gov.uk/government/news/more-women-to-be-supported-back-into-stem-jobs-in-government-backed-training
9 WISE Annual Statistics Round UP https://www.wisecampaign.org.uk/statistics-round-up-2024/
10 Swafford and Anderson (2020), Addressing the Gender Gap: Womenâs Perceived Barriers to Pursuing STEM Careers, Journal of Research in Technical Careers, 4(1), https://oasis.library.unlv.edu/jrtc/vol4/iss1/5/