To mark Ada Lovelace Day, we spoke to Katherine Bowen, Senior Director of Regulatory Affairs at Boyds, about the inspiration behind her STEM career, how she overcame challenges along the way, and ways to encourage more women to work in STEM.
Ada Lovelace Day
Ada Lovelace Day (ALD) is an international celebration of the achievements of women in science, technology, engineering, and maths (STEM). It aims to raise the profile of women in STEM, and in doing so, create new role models who will encourage more girls to pursue STEM careers and support women already working in STEM.
When starting out in your career in medicine/science, how did you overcome adversity?
“I don’t think I did to start with! Early in my career my response to adversity tended to be to work longer and harder and, in true imposter syndrome-sufferer style, assume that everything that went wrong was somehow my fault! However, I soon learned that working hard isn’t everything – working smart and being kind to yourself are just as key and it’s so very important to keep a sense of perspective. I soon realised the value in understanding what you could and couldn’t control and of having a network of people you trust to bounce things off. Most important was the realisation that adversity is really an opportunity to learn and grow and once you have that mindset, things that could easily feel insurmountable can become challenges that are fun to put your mind to and overcome.”
What do you think could help encourage more women to get into STEM subjects and careers?
“I think we need to take each stage of development in a woman’s life and look at how we can engage at every one of those stages. This should start from the very youngest girls to instil in them the same love for understanding the world around them as my mum instilled in me, to persuading teenagers that STEM is cool, so they progress through A-levels and into university. Most importantly, we need a diversity of role models that young women, and others, can relate to and recognise so they understand what they can achieve and for those role models to actively engage in breaking down any barriers they faced so the ladder is easier to climb for those below.
“We need to go beyond encouraging young women into STEM to keeping women in the industry and realising their potential so they can become those all-important role models. We need young women to know that here is a career path that won’t be closed to them if they choose to have children, or don’t. It is often still the reality that women do much of the childcare and work in the home and those of lucky enough to be in a position to influence how this plays out in the workplace need to constantly ask “how can we work together to help you succeed?”
“I recently attended a Women in Advanced Therapies event and was blown away by the sheer number of talented, wonderful women carving out their place at the very cutting-edge of medicine and doing it their way; embracing the things that make them, them and reaching out to those around them to bring them along the journey. For me, this means everything from helping my niece understand how rainbows form, to making time to speak to a new graduate about careers in the pharma industry, to asking my new-parent employee what we need to do to help so they can attend our company team building, and discussing imposter syndrome with someone I never would have thought would suffer from it – we all need to support each other at each and every level so together, we realise the amazing potential of women in STEM.”
Find out more about Ada Lovelace Day and the history behind the event here.
