Two scientists have raised more than £20,000 in a bid to tackle the stereotypes holding girls back from considering a career in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem).

Dr Jess Wade, physicist and researcher at Imperial College London, and Dr Claire Murray, a scientist for research facility Diamond Light Source, set up a Just Giving page to raise enough money to send a copy of Angela Saini’s book Inferior: how science got women wrong - and the new research that’s rewriting the story to every state school in the UK.

Their initial target of £2,000 (which would have funded one copy to be sent to every girls’ state school in the UK) was surpassed in two days. Donations from 809 supporters and an agreement by the book’s publisher, 4th Estate, to match whatever was raised saw the total rise to £20,640 - enough to send a copy of the book to every maintained secondary in the UK. 

“We are totally overwhelmed with the support for our campaign. In just over 10 days we managed to raise enough to get a copy of Inferior in every library of every state school in the country,” said Murray and Wade. “The publishers, 4th Estate, have been incredible - agreeing to match our funds and distribute all the books to libraries. The recommendations of the Institute of Physics’ Improving Gender Balance project included getting young people engaged in tackling bias and stereotypes, and we can think of no better way than arming them with facts.”

Getting more girls into Stem

Over the next few weeks, the pair will work with their colleagues to create a set of classroom resources to help teachers and students explore and discuss the book.

Girls make up just one-fifth of physics A-level students; only a tenth of physics professors are women; and just 19 per cent of the Stem workforce is female.

By providing every school in the UK with the Saini’s book, Wade and Murray hope to raise the aspirations and belief of girls in the UK and make them aware of their potential to become scientists.

”Inferior inspired us and so many scientists we know, and we hope it does the same in the hands of school students,” they said. 

Saini, an engineer, science writer and broadcaster, said she had been touched by the hundreds of people who have donated money.

“I’m in awe of what Jess and Claire have managed to do. One of the things I document in Inferior is how male-dominated networks deliberately excluded women from science for centuries, and how in some ways we still live with this legacy today. People want change, and I think this campaign is evidence of that,” she added.

The change needs to be a psychological one, in terms of how people think about women and how girls and boys think about themselves, Saini said.