Diversity is here to stay

Professor Lesley Yellowlees CBE FRSC FRSE, Royal Society of Chemistry Immediate Past-President

It’s well-documented that our community is not as diverse as it could and should be. Looking at different stages in academia, for example, reveals that whereas nearly half of A-level and undergraduate students in the UK are female, this number rapidly declines with advancing career stages. Only a quarter of academic staff in the chemical sciences are female, and when it comes to chemistry professors, women make up only 8% of the UK total.

It’s numbers like these that demonstrate why diversity and inclusion in the chemical sciences is something I care deeply about, and why I decided to make it one of the key priorities for my term as Royal Society of Chemistry president.

I remember being asked, when I first took on the role, what it was that I wanted to achieve during my presidency. And I remember thinking that I wanted to do something that helped the chemical science community. But where do you even begin? We already do exactly that in so many different ways. By beginning to tackle the diversity issue, I felt that we could make a vital difference. 

True diversity looks beyond gender

Looking back at what was happening in the UK government, what other learned societies were doing, and what the media were talking about, it was a good time for us to focus on diversity. People had woken up to the fact that a diverse scientific community is not a ‘nice to have’ but an absolute must.

Yet one problem remains. Much has been written and said about women in science, encouraging school girls to take up the subject and making senior careers accessible to women. However, the fact that true diversity must look beyond gender seems all too easily forgotten. Diversity must be considered in the broadest possible sense. It’s the right thing to do, but especially within our discipline, it also offers great value. Bringing together scientists from different nationalities or with different ethnic backgrounds might bring about new, unexpected insights. And the experience that someone brings who entered the profession through a less traditional route might drive innovation forward.

We must do more to create a chemical science community that is truly diverse. When I started out as the Royal Society of Chemistry’s president two years ago, we set our bar high. We gave ourselves the challenge to champion and encourage diversity in its broadest sense throughout the chemical sciences.

Two years later, have we achieved that goal?

We’ve certainly made great progress through many different activities. From our 175 Faces of Chemistry initiative to some of the latest events in spring this year that helped us raise awareness of the topic amongst UK government representatives, we have championed diversity in many different ways. I’m especially proud to have created, and to now chair, our new Inclusion and Diversity Committee, which will steer and challenge our activities.

However, there is also no denying that, when you pull together an ambitious plan, there is always more to do. Especially when it comes to diversity beyond the gender gap, we need to continue full steam ahead.

I’m confident that we are in a great position to continue pushing for change in this area. We’ve put the message about diversity out to different audiences, made valuable connections with people in our community and beyond, and the diversity audit we carried out in 2013 gave us a clear direction for how to embed diversity and inclusion across our five strategic priority areas and, subsequently, all of our activities.

Together we can achieve our ambitious goals

The key thing now is not to lose the wonderful momentum we’ve generated. Although my term as president has come to an end, I know that diversity will remain high on the agenda. To put it in Dominic Tildesley’s words: “Diversity is such an important topic, that we cannot allow its importance to come and go as presidents come and go.”

I am excited to see our focus on diversity continue, and I certainly won’t be looking on from the outside. I will play my part as a member and representative of the Royal Society of Chemistry in the same way that I have since I first joined, backing the organisation and our community wholeheartedly, as well as continuing in my role as chair of the Inclusion and Diversity Committee.

At the same time, we will count on your continued support. Our members are what make the Royal Society of Chemistry. By working together to champion diversity in the chemical sciences, we can continue to build on the successes we’ve already had.