ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½app

Bianca Shepherd and Molly Kirkpatrick are often the only women in the room, a feeling they know too well working in STEM. 

They've both had moments throughout their careers and studies when they looked around and saw only men. For Bianca, it was on a construction site. For Molly, it was some of her first lectures at the University of ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½app (ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½app).  

"You feel like you don't belong. You feel like you're out of place, and you question whether you should even be here," Molly recalls.  

 However, both are hopeful that the tide will soon change and that they will see more women like themselves working in science.  

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) celebrates women's and girls' contributions to science and promotes further participation in these fields. 

Although the number of women enrolling and working in STEM has increased, and 15% of all people working in STEM jobs. 

Bianca Shepard is ANSTO's Engineering Support Workshop Manager. She oversees the manufacturing and fabrication of equipment and specialised parts or, as she likes to put it, the Bunnings of nuclear equipment. 

She's had a vibrant and varied career, starting with a BHP electrical engineering cadetship. She then studied a Bachelor of Management and Psychology at ÌìÃÀ´«Ã½app and has since worked in the mining, construction, and nuclear industries. She's now completing her MBA at .

STEM starts at home

^{Bianca Shepherd with two students from the Curious Mind Program. She is passionate about getting women and girls interested in STEM. Via Curious Minds.} 

Bianca attributes her interest in science to her parents. Her mother broke conventional stereotypes as a working mum fighting for gender pay equality, and her father always got her involved in fixing the cars.  

"I didn't get dolls as a kid. I got Lego," she says.  

She believes an interest in STEM starts at home, and as a working mother, she likes to model these same values, especially for her daughter.  

"She will see me around the house, pull things apart to try and repair them, as opposed to calling someone."  

Bianca saw opportunities to weave STEM into her children's lives at all stages, from Lego, which develops problem-solving skills and spatial awareness, to changing a flat tyre when learning to drive.  

"Doing that builds confidence in my children, that if I weren't there, they would have the instinct to go, 'what would Mum do? Oh, she'd look it up and have a crack."  

"I mean, what's the worst that can happen? We break it? Well, it's broken already."   

Bianca believes that when this behaviour aligns with school and government resources, we'll notice the most significant shift.  

"I think we are on the precipice," she says. 

"I do a lot of outreach work in and outside of ANSTO. I bring these young women into the workshops, show them the machines and drawings, and you can see their brains start to tick over."  

Shoot for the stars

Molly Kirkpatrick is a part of the next generation of scientists who demonstrate what can happen when we tell girls to reach for the stars. They might just land on the moon instead. 

Molly is completing a PhD focusing on X-ray fluorescence methods for in-situ resource utilisation in space. In simpler terms, she uses X-rays to understand how we can use space materials to create oxygen, extract water, or make bricks. 

Her research is some of the first of its kind and is critical in the future of space exploration, as Molly says the current technology won't support sending people to the moon. 

"People are looking at how you can make oxygen or bricks out of moon dirt, but no one is looking at how to find the materials you need to do those reactions," she says. 

Rather than transporting resources to space, we can rely on what's already there.  

"But you can't do one without the other," she adds. 

This research might have gone unnoticed if not for the encouragement of a fellow female scientist. A friend urged Molly to apply for the CSIRO summer internship, knowing the supervisor, Dr Brianna Ganly, specialised in materials engineering and physics - just like Molly.  

"She was just this kick-ass woman. So, I applied."  

Molly was confident that she was not going to keep studying after uni. That was until Dr Ganly suggested completing a PhD on space. 

"That changed everything. I have always loved space. I've been fascinated by what's out there and the idea of exploring it."   

The norm, not the exception

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, but Bianca and Molly are looking to what we can achieve in the future rather than reflecting. 

Molly recalls a story about a fellow engineering student who walked into her first tutorial of the semester to find a room filled with women. 

"Instead of her first thought being, 'awesome'. It was, 'I'm in the wrong room'. I don't want women to feel like they are in the wrong room," she says. 

This desire for change led her to the Women in STEM Society, where she eventually became president. It offered a community of like-minded women, and while they may have been scattered in male-dominated rooms across campus, it was there. 

"If you're a woman in these fields already, be visible. Be around and available for young people to see that you're doing these things," Molly says. 

“If you aren't working in STEM, support women who are. Talk about it. Be interested, ask questions and tell other people."  

The flow-on effect means we will hopefully see more women in STEM workplaces. Bianca hopes that one day, we will have all-women project teams. 

"Women bring a different skill set to the workplace. We are good at consultation, communication, and problem-solving," Bianca says. 

"It's easy to get people that are much like yourself and align with your thought process, but a person who challenges your opinions lifts you to different levels of thinking and can ultimately be good for the team.”