Amnesty says US officials should face war crimes charges over drone strikes

 

This week saw a day of celebration for Ada Lovelace, a brilliant mathematician who wrote the world's first computer program before computers were even invented. Lovelace grew up in a world of enormous gender inequality, and her first experience of it came moments after birth with her father's reported disappointment that she was not "the glorious boy" he had hoped for. But even now, nearly 200 years later, women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) are still fighting an uphill battle against professional gender imbalance.

According to e-skills UK, women make up just 17% of the UK IT and telecoms workforce. And the number of women in the most senior research positions in Stem in the UK also stands at the paltry figure of 17%, according to a 2012 European Commission study. Even worse, according to a 2012 Wise campaign report (pdf) only 13% of Stem jobs in the UK are occupied by women.

So why has progress been so slow since Lovelace blazed her trail some two centuries ago? Partly because women in Stem are still battling attitudes towards women that belong in the 19th century. To celebrate Ada Lovelace day, the Everyday Sexism Project invited women on Twitter to share their experiences in Stem careers, good or bad. Many positive stories were shared, with one woman saying she was "so proud of my electrical engineer mother who's been head of her department for 20+ years" and others reporting positive moves in the right direction …