STEMMing the Leaky Pipeline A Place to Belong in Physics – How CUWiP+ and PGWiP+ helped me

Posted on by Ella Mann-Andrews

The PGWiP+ logo

One of the first experiences I had with ‘Women+ in Physics’ was the Conference for Undergraduate Women and Non-Binary People in Physics (CUWiP+). I’ve been lucky enough to go twice: once in my first year, and again in my fourth year. Both times were super important for me, and I’ve since seen the same effect on Lancaster physics students every year when groups of undergrads from the department get to go. The talks, lab tours, and just chatting to people all make a difference—but especially the talks that mix personal experience with actual science and research.

These kinds of spaces matter when you think about the “leaky pipeline” in physics. In my personal experience in the pipeline myself (I have yet to leak out), I have noticed a few clear pinch points. One of the earliest I’ve noticed is at A-level - I tutor GCSE and A-level physics, and while I’ve had many GCSE physics students who were girls, I have yet to teach A-level physics to anyone but male students. There just aren’t that many Women+ students taking physics; it’s an intimidating A-level, to be fair. But when Women+ students take physics they do it because really want to - they have to be almost ‘overqualified’ (8s or 9s at GCSE) - whereas for some male students I think it can feel more like a natural add-on if they’re already good at maths and did well enough at GCSE. By the time you get to university, there is still an imbalance but it’s different. At Lancaster, physics felt like it was around 30% Women+ when I did my undergrad, compared to something closer to 50/50 in chemistry or a slight majority in biology. Which I find fascinating, all the science started on a level playfield (no women being allowed to study at university), so what made the uptake faster for those two STEMM subjects? Interestingly, by my MPhys (fourth year) it felt a bit higher - maybe around 40%. My personal theory was that if Women+ students had fought hard to get into A-level and degree physics, they were more likely to stick around - but I have no evidence for that.

Something I think about a bit too much too much is how - as a Women+ student/researcher - you can actually shift the gender ratio on a small scale just by being in a space. For example, if you and a few others keep going to lectures right to the end of term - when attendance has dropped off almost exponentially - you can end up having a lecture where the audience is something like 60/70/80% Women+. It probably doesn’t matter to anyone else, but whenever I notice groups beating the percentages, it’s a little win, I guess. Also, if you (assuming the reader is Women+) go to something, you guarantee there’s at least one Women+ person there, bare minimum. And if someone else turns up, they won’t be the only one, guaranteed. That can make a big difference to that other person. Sometimes it’s not just about being in the minority - it’s about noticing that you’re the only one. If you’re willing to be there, you stop someone else having that experience, I guess. Maybe it’s just an excuse for me to go to more events, but it does go through my mind sometimes. I have noticed a ‘minimum percentage you need to not notice an obvious lack of Women+’ which I think is about 20-30%, below this an event, lecture or group has an obvious lack for some reason, this has no good/bad connotation, it’s just noticeable.

Going back to CUWiP+: the first one I went to was in York in March 2020, in my first year of my degree. It was a weirdly tense time because there was uncertainty around whether events would be cancelled - I remember there were four confirmed cases of COVID in York the weekend before so everyone was a bit jumpy. As a Natural Sciences student, I was only in physics about a third of my first year, and I did find it a bit intimidating compared to my biology classes. I was convinced I wanted to be a biophysicist, having done my EPQ in sixth form on quantum biology. I knew I belonged at university, I’d been looking forward to it all 6th form, but it still felt like a big jump up - especially with lectures and less contact with educators. I’ve always liked having that connection with teachers, and suddenly I was one of hundreds in a lecture theatre.

The conference felt like a bit of a reset. There were undergrads from across the country, really interesting speakers who’d started where I was, and PhD students who met us at the station and helped organise everything. Other than my older sister, who’s one of my biggest role models, I’d never met any other physics PhD students, so this was a brilliant place to meet them. The Physics Department paid for my travel, which felt very generous when I was in first year. The conference covered accommodation and food - it really felt well thought-out and friendly. I remember sitting at a table with Jocelyn Bell Burnell, which still feels a bit surreal, although I admit I didn’t know who she was until I googled her on the second day. I later noticed her name on the plaque that I walked past every day on my way into the Physics Department. Being in a room with around 100 other undergrads made me feel like I was part of something in a way I hadn’t since sixth form. It also gave me a glimpse of PhD life really early on, which honestly helped me push through the pandemic and my degree as that unfolded.

When I went again in my fourth year, it was equally exciting, especially because I knew what to expect and was really looking forward to it. By then, I’d done three years of full-time physics and felt more settled, although the pandemic had disrupted that a bit. Fourth year felt more normal again, and I was spending a lot of time in the Department. I knew I wanted to do a PhD, but I don’t think I had my offer yet back then, so it made me even more determined to find one. That conference was in Liverpool – they put us in a youth hostel dorm just down the road from the club the Beatles used to play in and I shared with six other undergrads from across the country, which was super really fun. The final dinner was in a museum, while the first conference dinner back in York had been in the old train station - both felt very fancy and cool.

After starting my PhD, I began advertising CUWiP+ around the Department and trying my best to get any undergrads I worked with through outreach or teaching to sign up. It’s definitely worth it, and I now get to see the excited LinkedIn posts from undergrad Lancaster students who go each year – I really wish I could go again!. If you’re reading this and you know any Women+ physics undergrads, applications are usually around January/February, and the conference moves to a different UK university each year. Food and accommodation are covered by CuWiP+, and Department will usually help with travel costs if you ask nicely. It’s 2–3 days, a proper little adventure.

In my second year of my PhD, I was really excited to hear that a PGWiP+ conference existed. The one I went to was in Nottingham - it’s a smaller, one-day version, with less funding, but it was still full of interesting people and inspiring talks, with around 40–50 PhD students attending. It’s nice because you end up recognising people at other academic conferences later on who you met there. At the end of the conference, they said they weren’t sure where it would be next year, so I joined the organisers’ mailing list. I didn’t manage to convince them I could run it on my own at Lancaster - completely reasonably, I would have been way out of my depth - so this year it’s being organised by Tracey Berry, a professor at Royal Holloway. She asked if I would like to be on the committee, as I had some organising experience. It’s been really exciting, and I can’t wait to get a group of Women+ postgrads from Lancaster, along with people I knew from undergrad who are now PhD students at different universities, to meet up there. The speakers are so cool, it’s been so much fun putting the poster together.

PhDs need motivation too - doing a PhD can be a stressful, isolating experience. Being able to talk to speakers at these conferences is great; you hear their experiences and get to chat in a way you don’t usually get the chance to with lecturers. Also, I can count on one hand the number of Women+ lecturers I had during my undergrad, and Lancaster Physics is pretty good compared to some other universities. At the Nottingham PG conference, it surprised me to see such small groups of women from each university - surely there was more than one or two PhDs per university who would be interesting in attending! I felt lucky to be from one the universities that coordinated going together.

It’s also easy to forget how much things can vary. Small groups change a lot in their level of diversity over time. But at conferences, you still hear stories - especially from people who did their PhDs 20, 30, or 40 years ago - about being the only woman in their course or research group. Things have definitely improved, but it’s very variable, so there are still departments out there with really low numbers.

Being the only woman in a group isn’t always a bad experience - some groups are genuinely very welcoming, and you’re all just scientists trying to get our job done. But what matters is how it feels for specific sub-groups, and whether that affects whether someone stays in physics. Having role models you can relate to makes it easier to picture yourself there. There’s also a wider context. Things have changed a lot even in the past decade - not just in terms of how many women there are in science, but in terms of LGBTQ+ acceptance as well. I remember being in a gay marriage debate in my GCSE RE class in 2015. Then it was legalised, and now 11 years later I’m thinking about getting married myself. I won’t have to worry about telling people at work who I’m engaged to – which is a big deal. Being able to talk about your life more openly, even in small ways, makes a difference to how comfortable you feel at work. It’s not always something that comes up directly, but it still matters a lot. It makes me super optimistic and proud of the kinds of spaces in science that are being built over time.

Overall, spaces like CUWiP+ and PGWiP are definitely part of clear improvement in representation and general vibes – for want of a better word. They’re an incredible set of events, and I hope they stick around for a long time. I just like that even if you can’t change the overall ratio, you always change the ratio in the room you’re in.

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