Soapbox Science N.L. is taking female-led science to the streets

Raising awareness of gender disparity in science and bringing female-led research to a larger audience werethe goals of anevent held at the St. John's Farmers' Market onSaturday.

It was arranged by Soapbox Science Newfoundland and Labrador, which wants to promote female and gender-diverse scientists and their research.

Co-organizer Sarah Sauv says the need for gender parity in STEM fields science, technology, engineering and medicine is an important message,especially in Newfoundland and Labrador.

"Newfoundland and Labrador has one of the biggest disparities between men and women in science. It has the least gender diversity," said Sauv.

Soapbox Science N.L.was started virtually in 2020 and is modelled after its U.K. counterpart founded in 2011.

The platform was named after the concept of its events speakers literally standon soapboxes to talk to a broad public audience.

"The idea is to put both the spotlight on women and gender-diverse people in science, and also to bring science directly to the public," said Sauv.

It featured eight female scientists who spoke about theirrespectivefields of research, spanning different areas from gut microbiometo cancer and heart conditions.

One of the speakers was Francine Burke, currently completing her master's degreein neuroscience at Memorial University's St. John's campus.

Burke became involved with Soapbox Science N.L. to showcase her research as a female scientist to a larger audience outside of the academic community.

"Women are underrepresented in science," said Burke. "It's really important for us as women to come together in a public event like this and really show everyone what we can do."

She says she has first-hand experience with gender disparity in university science classrooms.

"Especially when you start off in university you have hundreds of people in your class, and by far, I've been underrepresented as a woman in those courses," said Burke. "Especiallyinthe harder sciences like physics and, like, hardermath courses."

The platform, says Burke, is an empowering network forfemale and gender-diverse scientists.

"It's great to come together with a group of women who are like-minded, who are all strong-headed, really interested in what they do, super-passionate about why they're doing it," said Burke.

According to Sauv, male dominationin science has beena long-standing issue.

"Historically, many people have been marginalized from science on purpose," said Sauv. "But we want to change that and that is changing. It's important to have different viewpoints. The more diverse viewpoints we have, the more we can discover."

Some research, says Sauv, suggests that gender disparity in science is gettingsmaller in some countries.She stresses that the largest gap can't be foundat the university entrance levelbut in higher degrees, something that's referred to as "leaky pipeline."

Doubts from othersduring her teenage years couldn't stop Burke from pursuing her dreams. Now she wants to encourageyoung women and gender-diverse people to do the same.

"There were times I was laughed at. There were times that, you know, I was toldI would not be able to accomplish those dreams," she said.

"I think that sometimes boys are told 'you're meant to do the bigger things.' And that's absolutely not true."

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