Reflections from women in Canadian chemistry

International Women’s Day reminds me that we need diverse and inclusive teams to address the wicked problems facing our society. Despite the benefits of diversity, women drop out of science and engineering at a greater rate than men, given ‘chilly’ organizational climates. Implicit biases aggregate to create intersectional systems of discrimination such that women of colour, neuro-diverse people, and non-binary individuals face even greater challenges. If we are to make progress in attracting, retaining, and promoting diverse individuals, we must move beyond measuring surface-level diversity and create inclusive workplaces where everyone can flourish.

For me, International Women’s Day (IWD) reminds me to consider the ongoing efforts to promote gender equality and to think about the progress (or lack of, in some cases) that we have made in terms of the discrimination, bias, and inequality that women often face in various aspects of life. It also reminds me to acknowledge and reflect on my own privilege, to continue to advocate for equality and justice, and to amplify the voices of women who face multiple forms of oppression due to the intersectionality of their identities.

For me, an organic chemist with three kids, IWD may hold significance in acknowledging the achievements and challenges faced by women in the field of science and academia. I think for me personally I try to celebrate the juggling act of balancing a demanding career with the responsibilities of raising a family.

Finally, I reflect on the progress that’s been made by the giants, champions, role models, mentors, and amazing women in science before my time.

It’s a chance to reflect on all the people who have supported me.

I have been involved with IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) for about 8 years. For their centenary celebrations, I became involved with the Global Women’s Breakfast (GBA) in 2019. Through this international networking event, I have got to know so many amazing women in chemistry. As the Canadian representative for GBA, I have been able to help promote breakfasts across Canada and offer moral support to others. One of the leaders of this project, Mary Garson, is now the vice-president and president-elect of IUPAC so I am very excited for the future of chemistry and especially equity, diversity and inclusion in our field.

I feel most empowered when I create new theories and methods that are academically rigorous and practically useful. For example, we are reworking process safety principles from the chemical industry to improve the risk management methods in other (seemingly unrelated) industries. In doing so, we are preventing serious incidents and fatalities from occurring in industrial construction, pipelines, railroads, and electricity generation and distribution.

As a chemist, we have a platform—chemistry—to create equal opportunities for every trainee, including women, to make their best efforts and to build up their future careers in many different sectors: academia, industry, and government organizations.

Anytime I’ve been asked to step into a leadership role has empowered me. My goal in any leadership role is to empower the next generation of scientists. I firmly believe that anything that improves circumstances for women in the chemical sciences will improve circumstances for all.

This is a tough question because we still have a lot of work to do in this area. When I reflected on this, I came to the conclusion that empowerment in my role as a woman chemist has come from my mentors, role models, champions, colleagues and students demonstrating their confidence in me.

I found incredibly rewarding my years working with colleagues and with NSERC staff on the 1504 Evaluation Group. Together, we heard each other’s concerns and suggestions as we found ways to perform the tasks asked of the committee, to promote chemistry, and to ensure that all members of the team felt critical to the process and empowered.

I try to be proud of both small and big achievements in my career. I am enormously proud of all the students that I have mentored during my 18 years at Memorial. In particular, Dr. Jennifer Murphy, who is at the start of her independent career at the University of Guelph, and Dr. Juliana Vidal, who is inspiring many to learn more about green chemistry and sustainability through her work with Beyond Benign.

It was a difficult decision to go back to university to get my Ph.D. after having worked in industry. However, working as a researcher and professor and seeing my students flourish makes me the most proud. As scientists and engineers, we design and build refineries, processes, new algorithms… We can ensure that our products are economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. We work from within the system to reshape that system. We are much more effective changemakers than politicians, critics, and protesters will ever be.

Our trainees have successful careers in their chosen fields.

Definitely seeing my trainees grow and thrive, be able to test their own hypotheses in the lab, and seeing how the group’s scientific direction is so much influenced by trainees’ ideas/inputs. It is wonderful to catch up with past trainees as they progress in their independent careers.

My students. Nothing brings me more pride and a sense of accomplishment than witnessing my students find success and happiness! That means a different thing to every student I have the opportunity to work with, and I find value and a sense of worth in every single student finding their path.

Helping other people, particularly trainees. In my youth, I had intimate experiences with low income, disabilities, unrest, and rural life, and it was through the support of others that I was enabled as a first-generation university student; I know those people would be proud of me if, in any way, I could help and support others.

Just like the majority of girls/women, I was not a very active participant during my academic training, in the sense that I did not raise my hand in classes to ask questions and was timid to answer or participate in discussions. I still observe the same trend in the classes I teach now, though I can address this issue to some extent in classes of a smaller size. As noted by research studies, this is one of the inherent traits and differences between genders, which often lead to unconscious biases. I would encourage my younger self to be more bold, less hesitant and just go for it and not care about other people’s perceptions.

Make sure you give yourself regular pep talks: “Go for it” and “You’re good enough.” I think it is all too easy to listen to the little voices in your head that make you doubt yourself and your abilities. I think it gets easier as you get older and you learn to surround yourself with the right sorts of people and support networks. With Zoom and online communities, it has made it easier to make those connections that would have been more challenging 20 years ago.

We need to allow ourselves to be the heroes in our own stories. We assume that if our work is great, it will speak for itself. Indeed, we are taught to write reports in the third person, as if the experiment ran itself or the data analyzed itself. We absent ourselves from our work. Break out of this! We must communicate our work in the first person. Communicate in a manner that resonates with our audiences: use graphs, use pictures, tell a story. Be an authentic and trustworthy translator; connect our knowledge and experience to theirs. Let our communications, writing, and presentations be a scarlet begonia amongst a sea of grey.

Be able to recognize your abilities and achievements; have self-confidence.

“It will be okay.” “Believe in yourself more and know that others believe in you too.” “Listen to your heart and lead with your passions.” I know that all sounds a bit corny, but I think I would have slowed down to recognize my accomplishments and celebrated a bit more if I didn’t internally feel as though I had something to prove all of the time.

Making a difference sometimes involves disrupting norms. Stay strong and continue to search for ways to share those apparently disruptive ideas in ways that feel accessible to others.

I see a greater support for motherhood (such as leaves, financial support, extension of grants/fellowships) to the person primarily involved, which is undoubtedly very important. On the postdoctoral level, however, I think there can be more support or incentive to encourage the hiring of women (who may eventually take a maternity leave). This pause on postdoctoral research output can put a strain on the PI’s research program. I hope this is never a factor when recruiting research associates or postdoctoral fellows, but my observations of highly successful research groups tell me otherwise.

Chemistry has broad uses beyond ‘typical’ process industries like oil and gas, which tend to be less appealing to women. I would like to see the chemistry community profile the emergent industries that need the uniquely valuable expertise that chemical graduates offer. For example, surficial chemistry, pharmaceuticals, environmental engineering, materials engineering, process control, and battery and energy storage design. The chemistry community needs to promote these diverse opportunities to elementary and middle school-aged girls so that they take chemistry in high school and consider it in university.

Working with the national team, the CSC, and the WIDE, I have been a part of a team that is continually working on implementing inclusion, equity, diversity, and accessibility into our chemistry community. I hope to see our chemistry community consider EDI in every aspect of our field, from training to teaching, service to communication, and more. EDI shouldn’t be siloed and must be integrated. As scientists we rely on evidence, and we should be held accountable to provide evidence that we are working towards a more inclusive chemistry community.

For everyone to experiment by making a 10-second effort to see things from other people’s viewpoints—it’s like counting to ten and breathing, but more active.