For the past three decades, devout Sikh Pritpal Kaur has had a thriving STEM career.

Now in her sixities, the online freelance teacher from Tonbridge is encouraging more women and diversity within the field.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths, also known as STEM, are typically male dominated subjects and as stemwomen.com says, within the field “the representation of BAME (Black, Asian and minority ethnicities) women is vastly worrying.”

After recieving her Masters degree and teaching qualification from Warwick University, Pritpal continued her studies as she worked towards getting her PhD from Newcastle University.

Following her graduation, she excelled her STEM career by working in the chemistry research department of Newcastle, and later in universities in Edinburgh and Leicester.

Pritpal said: “One of the things I noticed was, for example, even in the chemistry lab in Edinburgh University, there were two women versus about six men.

“Then at Leicester University it was, again, a ratio of two to one, twice as many men as opposed to women working in the research labs there.

“Later, in the pharmaceutical industry where I worked for several years, the ratio was greater. There were more men, three to one this time around.”

In 2020 within the UK, women accounted for just 24% of the core STEM workforce, and of that number half were of Black, Asian and minority ethnicities (BAME).

On the field she has worked in for the past 30 years, Pritpal said: “I have come across some women in science, but a lot more could be done.

“There is a tendency after somebody graduates quite happily with a chemistry degree or a physics degree automatically to go ‘oh I think I’ll work in finance or banking in the city’, simply because they don’t wish to go into the teaching, research, pharmaceutical or healthcare sectors.”

In the past few years, the rate of women entering the science and technology study field has been growing at a slow rate, rising by only one per cent.

Of the women who do obtain a degree, many choose not to remain in the workforce due to imposter syndrome, an experience where individuals believe they are not as competent as they are perceived by others, constantly causing bouts of self-doubt.

Pritpal says that combating these issues comes from addressing children and teenagers and changing the perceptions of STEM learning.

“We do need good role models, standing in front of the children, trying to teach them.

“It is important to understand that we have to stimulate interest in science from a very young age. A child doesn’t necessarily have to attend a particular school in order to develop an interest in science.

“Science is all around us. It’s in the kitchen when we are baking, perhaps frying something, or making a cup of tea, and so on,” she said.

To encourage the enjoyable side of STEM, more interactive learning and a change in school curriculum could be the answer, she says.

“When I was at secondary school, many years ago, it was the case that we were taught something called Nuffield science, and this was very experimental. It was wonderful and I liked the practical side.

“Nowadays, you know, teachers just switch on the video from the internet and say ‘there we go.’ and the children watch this video, and that’s what their contact is with that experiment.

“We have to try to encourage the fun side to things, rather than it being so prescriptive that is all geared for exams. It should be much more research based and much more experimental based,” said Pritpal.

Whilst championing her own STEM career for the past several decades, Pritpal has been doing just that, teaching young children through practical experiments, encouraging interactive learning and providing a positive role model to students whose paths cross with her.

Spending her spare time at the gurdwara in Gravesend, she has balanced her worklife with her religious commitments by dedicating her time to encourage STEM learning while keeping in touch with the Sikh goal of selfless service (sewa) and serving humanity.

During her career, Pritpal has been teaching, demonstrating experiments when working in pharmaceuticals, attending career fairs to help schoolchildren understand what STEM is, and most recently, providing GCSE chemistry lessons to Year 11 students.

But it is not just more women in STEM that Pritpal would like to see. She said she would like to see more diversity within the field in the future.

Pritpal said: “At the present moment in time STEM is within the UK, so it’s all UK-wide activities.

"It would be nice if it was spread across the world, so others – for example, developing countries like India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and African countries – can also join in as well.”

Despite current imbalances in the workforce, range in the field is necessary with stemwomen.com highlighting that “evidence shows diverse teams increase innovation, productivity and revenue” in the industry.

“We have to bring all the youngsters together and try to encourage them to take up the STEM-based subjects and careers. That’s how we would see more diversity in this field,” said Pritpal.