The Incredible Women in STEM
As a young, female, conservationist still at University, I thoroughly enjoy listening to talks from current advocates and researchers from numerous disciplines. However, there are times that I have this overwhelming sense of lack of accomplishment so far in my journey. Being a 24 year-old student, it is easy to compare myself to amazing people in the industry that have already accomplished so much. Just look at Greta Thunberg and her astonishing achievements at only 18 years of age. These were the underlying feelings that I had going into the Womenblazetrails conference but instead, I was met with the utmost inspiration and feeling of new-found confidence.
To celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, this three-day free global festival brings together the work and achievements of more than 50 incredible women in STEM. It would be impossible and unjust to attempt to tell the stories of all of these women and the lessons I have learned in such a short post, so I will instead write some concluding thoughts. This is why I encourage you to check out this festival even if these talks are not in your current area or discipline.
The destruction and damage we have done to our planet has now affected humans across the globe in the form of the coronavirus. I know I spend many sleepless nights worrying about my own future as well as the future of my family and friends. To be able to watch a conference with such incredible women engaging in the fight to protect the planet has given me a new hope and has rekindled the idea of “the power of one” from the amazing Karina May Reyes-Antonio . Living in a current national lockdown, there is also a constant worry of time wasted but knowing the journeys that so many women have been on it gives me absolute hope that there is no deadline for the start of my career.
This festival has brought me out of a recent anxious and dark place and made me get out my camera again and walk to my local park with inspirations from Ami Vitale and Alizé Carrère. This may seem such a meaningless and small thing, but to me it reminds me that I need to find and experience nature as much as I am able to right now and embrace the nature living on my doorstep. These women have even motivated me to finally write my first blog post, a thing I have up until now put off due to a lack of confidence. I now want to go storm chasing like Krystle Wright and Chelsea Burnett and research further the rewilding by Osa Conservation. This organisation especially spoke to me as a real time solution to deforestation and increased my hope that we have not lost this beautiful planet forever. For a brief moment, I even thought about how amazing it would be to go on a submarine with a female pilot like Erika Bergman or cave diving with Jill Heinerth, although my overwhelming claustrophobia soon reminded me it would probably be best to watch from afar. I also cannot write this without mentioning the amazing Toucan Rescue Ranch working in Costa Rica to save and rehabilitate the native wildlife.
If there is anything I have learned over the weekend it is perseverance and my new favourite word serendipity, finding something good by chance, spoken in such great context by forest science team leader Lindsey Rustad. It has also been a festival full of diversity and an incredibly important respect and thanks to Indigenous Communities who are living, first hand, the impacts and damage from the Western world whilst so commonly forgotten or dismissed. I want to thank all of the amazing speakers and Exploring by the Seat of Your Pants for hosting this festival and I hope it has inspired so many more scientists and conservationists both young and old and of any gender identity.