Dr Vicki Brown Lecturer in Mathematics, University of South Wales

I have always been drawn to maths and problem-solving, ever since I can remember, and my parents encouraged my interest in the subject. My mum is a maths teacher and I attended a single-sex school so, until I left school, I was not really aware of the under-representation of women in STEM. Once I got to university though, I started to realise that there was a definite gender imbalance. None of my lecturers for my undergraduate maths degree were women, and fewer women were enrolled on the maths degree than men, particularly as I progressed through my degree. This observation was really brought home to me when, during my PhD, I attended a ‘Women in Maths’ day at the London Mathematical Society (the fact that there was a ‘Women in maths’ Day was a good indicator of gender disparity in the subject!). There, someone gave a talk where they presented the percentages of women in maths at different stages of academia. By the time you were looking at professors, they showed that only around 3% of maths professors were female (at that point in time). I couldn’t believe that number was so small! Since then, I have done my best to be visible as a woman working in STEM and encouraging girls to engage with STEM subjects. It is so important to address the gender disparity in STEM, as I believe a truly representative workforce, bringing different ideas and viewpoints (based in the different experiences people have) together, can only make STEM stronger.

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