Polly Arnold (third from the right) was honored as TUM Ambassador in 2017 for her outstanding academic achievements by TUM president Wolfgang A. Herrmann (Image: Astrid Eckert/TUM).
Her recipe for success as a female chemical scientist in a male dominated area? “I work really hard. I have been well supported and I love it”, Polly Arnold explains as if it was nothing. “My motivation is a mixture of worry and optimism. The worry keeps me honest and constantly challenging every result. The optimism makes me suggest the weirdest of reactions.”
But this is just one reason. Reflecting her career she hesitates: “I’m afraid, it is significant to my success that I don’t have children.” And she could be right. Successful women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields are still the minority – not only in her home country Great Britain. In Germany the percentage of female professors in STEM is only 13 percent as well. But, to make it even worse there is another side of the coin: “As a woman without children, I am afraid I may be viewed as a ‘machine’ or ‘the aggressive woman no one likes’”, Polly Arnold says. These are facts that not only touch her. It is a reality too many women experience in their business lives.
Unconscious bias – unconscious prejudices against women
For Polly Arnold one important reason can be found within society – in everyone of us. Men as women tend to give preference to men in business life, for senior and executive positions – very often without being aware. For her – realizing this unconscious bias was a “real shocker”.
“The problem is, women do have this unconscious bias as well”, she says empathic. Being not aware of giving preference to men in career situations or even in daily life is the main problem in our society. “Constantly reminding ourselves of our biases is hard to remember and boring, but it is so important that we keep these in mind whenever we have to make decisions, especially when we are stressed or tired, when our biases increase.”
What else can we do to solve this problem? Polly Arnold knows, strong feministic thinking mentors are crucial. “When you talk to women who are still in science, almost all of us had strong mentors who supported and encouraged us,” she says. She is a proud feminist and she herself constantly tries to be the best possible mentor for young scientists – especially women.
We need to blame society. The main problem is all of our unconscious biases – not just those working in science.
Scientist Sisterhood – a network
Relentless as she is – she has also started a new task lately. “Scientist Sisterhood”: a network for senior female scientists in Scotland that is visible online. The female experts can be found and contacted quickly without lots of research via a map for example as conference speakers. It seems a simple idea but a cross-cutting network is long overdue. Women make up only about ten percent of the senior scientists in universities, public bodies and industry in the UK. “Those women can find themselves in a position where they are a lone woman in an area, and perhaps leading an all-male team”, Arnold explains. Her idea is that senior women support each other in building a network that underpins confidence among them and emphasizes excellence.
Since 2013, every year TUM names international guest researchers TUM Ambassadors. You find all TUM Ambassadors here.
Polly Arnold (Image: Astrid Eckert/TUM).
TUM-IAS Honorary Hans Fischer Senior Fellow, TUM Ambassador 2017
Professor Polly L. Arnold is director of the chemical science division at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the USA and professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley.
Previously she held the Crum Brown Chair in the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. She studied in Oxford and obtained her PhD in 1997 from University of Sussex.
Further stages in her life were the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as postdoc researcher and the University of Nottingham as a lecturer before she went to EaStCHEM School at the University of Edinburgh in 2007 to get promoted to Chair in 2009.
As Hans Fischer Senior Fellow of the TUM Institute for Advanced Study, Arnold has been a guest at the TUM Department of Synthetic Inorganic Chemistry several times in the past years. During this period she has developed a strong commitment to TUM and supported important collaborative projects between TUM and her alma mater.
2107 Polly Arnold was awarded the honorary title of TUM Ambassador by TUM President Wolfgang A. Herrmann. In recognition of their achievements, selected top international researchers who have conducted research as guests at TUM have been awarded this title once a year since 2013.TUM Ambassador.
If you want to follow TUM Ambassador and Science Sister Polly Arnold @ProfArno
If you are a female senior scientist in Scotland become a #scisister
