Gender diversity in Maths and Physics is poor and stereotypical images of Mathematicians and Physicists pervasive in our culture and media alienate many girls from choosing to pursue these subjects. The number of girls taking Maths and Physics at A-level and beyond is significantly lower than boys. WISDOM (Women in Science Doing Outstanding Maths and Physics) hosted by the School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics at Newcastle University works to help address this by promoting Maths and Physics as realistic options and presenting female role models who use Maths and Physics every day in their jobs. In particular, we aim to dispel the myth that as a girl Maths and Physics are “not for me”, and give a better understanding of the broad range of careers Maths and Physics makes available.

WISDOM started in 2016 and has run for four years as a careers event for girls, and has been enormously popular with the girls and their parents/teachers. These events brought local year 9 and 10 girls onto campus (with their parents or teachers) for engagement talks and to meet and chat with female employers, academics and students. All speakers, students and employers at the events were female. For 2020 and 2021 we have moved our event to the online format you see on this website in order to continue (and potentially expand) the reach and impact of WISDOM in a time where social distancing measures prevent us from running a live event.

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WISDOM2020 by School of Mathematics, Statistics and Physics, Newcastle University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://conferences.ncl.ac.uk/wisdom/.
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