UK science exam specs name 86 scientists at GCSE, and only one is a woman

Compulsory science material set by the UK's six main exam boards names 86 scientists at GCSE level, and only one of them is a woman, according to a University of Cambridge study published on October 22 in the British Educational Research Journal. That woman is Rosalind Franklin, and she appears in just one board's specification.

The picture barely changes at A-level. Of 181 scientists named there, three are women: Franklin, the ocean-floor mapper Marie Tharp and the seismologist Inge Lehmann.

What exactly was counted

The team, led by Greg J Cooke with Skyla B White and Stephanie Buttigieg, went through the specifications that tell teachers what must be taught. Six subjects were in scope, from biology and chemistry to geology, physics, astronomy and environmental science, at Key Stage 4 (GCSE and equivalent) and Key Stage 5 (A-level and equivalent).

A specification is not a textbook. Teachers can and do mention other people in class. But the specification is the shared minimum that every student sitting a given board's exam is meant to meet, which is why the authors focused on it.

The study was run with IncludeHer, a campaign for adding women's contributions to curricula. The release does not name the six boards or say which editions of the specifications were reviewed.

The physics link the authors draw

The researchers point to a familiar pattern. Girls tend to do as well as or better than boys in most science subjects at GCSE, yet far more boys go on to physics, maths and further maths at A-level. The share of girls choosing maths and further maths is now lower than it was in 2005, according to the release.

The authors describe the link between an all-male cast at GCSE and later subject choices as a "compelling" correlation. They do not claim to have shown cause and effect, and they say the reasons women are under-represented in science are complex. Physics content at GCSE, they write, shows a "saturation" of male names.

Buttigieg put the stakes simply: leaving out women's names means specifications "miss a real opportunity to help girls see a future for themselves in science."

Where the authors would add names

The paper does not ask for new topics. It points to places where women already belong to material students learn. Franklin would go into every biology specification, not just one. Marie Skłodowska-Curie would appear in GCSE chemistry alongside atomic structure and isotopes, and Lise Meitner in GCSE physics. Dorothy Hodgkin would be named in A-level biology's work on protein structure.

The authors also suggest the atmospheric chemist Susan Solomon and the astronomer Annie Jump Cannon. Whether any exam board will revise its specifications, and when, is not addressed in the release.