If all scientists were women | Gaby da Silveira Pinheiro | TEDxFrancisHollandSchoolSloaneSquare
URL: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSRPNREBMao Video ID: BSRPNREBMao ============================================================ what would happen if all scientists were women a the world would end B nothing or C the world would be saved how about this what would happen if all scientists were men a the world would end B nothing or see nothing okay okay not nothing we can't forget about the Einstein and the oppenheimer's the fermes and The fman Coincidence of course not but hey many of the contributions of men to the scientific World ignoring some of the violent ones have been essential to humanity cars concrete crude oil but Jokes Aside if in the course of all time there were no women discovering inventing gamechanging we would have to live without wifi windshield wipers the knowledge of the double helix video home security systems chemotherapy the knowledge of radiation computer algorithms even the electric computer itself all of which are used daily by billions of people around the world it is mindboggling perhaps even shocking that in each of these cases the women who did the dreaming inventing and discovering ing of these life-changing Innovations did not get credit for their ideas until much later in their lives if indeed they received any credit at all their hard work was credited for years sometimes even centuries to men I can see that a man could have just as likely achieved these things but where does that place women for centuries safety measures like seat Bel dimensions and painkiller dosages in hospitals have been modeled using male physiolog ology thereby either completely ignoring the unique features of a woman's body from breasts to larger hips and Beyond or simply making the ludicrous assumption that a woman is just a small man even the diagnoses for polycystic ovary syndrome and cervical cancer in women have been delayed or completely overlooked due to the fact that biological men will never suffer from them and of course there's menstruation and menopause both of which are constantly dismissed with it can't be that bad it's just part of being a woman the inventions of female scientists are intentionally universally applicable but it seems that often the so-called Innovations of men only consider their half of the species so let's take female scientists out of the equation would a male scientist speak up the same way a group of female researchers from Oregon Health and Science University have about how menstrual pad companies have up until recently used water instead of real menstrual blood to test the absorbency of their products thereby enabling an ongoing ignorance in the reality of women's menstrual flows my guess is probably not in a study done by Dr Esther H Chen in 2008 on men and women with similar mean pain scores women were not only less likely to receive pain medicine for acute abdominal pain but their median weight time was 16 minutes more than that of the men Dr J Hector Pope also conducted a study in 2000 showing that women are over five times more likely than men to be sent home from the hospital after a doctor misdiagnosed their acute myocardial infection a type of heart attack raise your hand if you or your family member has ever had a health issue dismissed by a GP because it's probably just stress or hormones or period symptoms yeah many and how many of those doctors were women right not many so what might happen if all scientists were women for one thing these numbers and your answers would probably be different many studies show that women tend to work more collaboratively and may have less authoritarian and more group consensus based communication Styles than men so in this hypothetical World Communication in a lab clinic or other scientific workplace of only female scientists could be much better than that of scientists today today a larger number of dissenting ideas might be voiced bed out refined and eventually tested this could therefore imply that work relationships can improve with the undoubtable strength of female relationships bonds which are universally known to be strong loyal and long- Lasting this could create a more welcoming environment in the workplace and in the field as a whole encouraging greater numbers of young people and minority groups to get involved in science this world could be rid of plagiarist and misit as scientists could treat each other with equality and respect the gender pay Gap would be non-existent for obvious reasons and there could be less social hierarchy in research Labs where some women find themselves and their ideas ignored this idea although incredibly intriguing is a little silly to consider as we are still far away from even parody let alone female dominance but of course the ideal scenario would be to have fair and equal representation of all groups in science so as to avoid bias and anyone being left out in research and development unfortunately we're not there yet according to a UNESCO report from February of 2024 women account for a minority of the world's researchers as one in three researchers are women what's even more shocking is that according to the 2019 US Census the proportion of female workers in all Fields was was 48% but the proportion of female workers in stem Fields was only 27 on the bright side there are many people and organizations dedicating to fixing this disparity such as the society for women Engineers the association for women in science stems women into science and engineering and even student run organizations like women in stem and stem to flower the office for National statistics released data showing that women working in stem in the UK increased by almost 20 8% between 2016 and 2019 although this means that the stem Workforce was only 24% female in 2019 this shows that the growth rate is huge and exponential so I would like to go back to my initial question what would happen if all scientists were women see it's not as simple as a b or c but it's all about how each individual no matter who they are can contribute to science and to their respective communities think about it think about all that would be lost without the women scientists who have already joined the ranks all we might be losing even still when so few women are entering the ranks of scientists now consider what would be different if more scientists were women perhaps half consider all we would gain from gender parity in science not just how the future of science would differ but where we are in the present if women were always included and welcomed in scientific discussions in the past what would our day-to-day lives and societies look like today we need to understand what it means not to have representation this can be many things from gender to race and ethnicity to disability status and misrepresentation can be an issue in all fields we need to understand what is lost with a lack of representation let me save this suspense a lot see I'm not advocating for men to be excluded from science this is a thought experiment meant to illustrate that women are essential in the advancement of this world and we should not take female scientists for granted instead we should continue to create opportunities for women and girls in science conduct research with everyone in mind and give everyone all scientists the credit they deserve with the goal of one day having equal and fair representation for all groups in stem thank you [Applause]