Eunice Newton Foote, who discovered the greenhouse effect and was a pivotal figure in women’s rights movements, is the focus of today’s Google doodle.

The discovery of the greenhouse effect is often attributed to physicist John Tyndall, who carried out a series of experiments in 1859 looking at how heat affected air. However, in 2011, amateur historian Raymond Sorenson discovered a record of a presentation of Foote’s work at the 10th annual meeting for the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1856, two years before Tyndall’s experiments started.

The report, which is also the first record of a physics article by a female scientist, described Foote’s experiments looking at how tubes of different gases, such as oxygen, air, hydrogen and carbon dioxide, warmed when exposed to sunlight. She concluded that “The highest effect of the sun’s rays I have found to be in carbonic acid gas”, which is primarily carbon dioxide.

She went on to speculate that “an atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature”.

The importance of Foote’s findings apparently wasn’t recognised by the scientists present, perhaps because her work was actually presented by the secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, Joseph Henry, who later wrote: “Although the experiments were interesting and valuable, there were [many difficulties] encompassing [any] attempt to interpret their significance.”

Foote was born in 1819 to Theriza Newton and Isaac Newton Jr, the latter of whom was a distant relative of the famous scientist. Foote was a prominent activist in the US women’s rights movement advocating for, among other things, the universal right to vote. She was one of the original signatories of a manifesto called the Declaration of Sentiments. This was written at the first women-organised women’s rights convention, which took place in 1848 in Seneca Falls, New York.

Though Foote wasn’t hugely active in scientific research for much longer after her 1856 experiments, she did perform experiments a couple of years later looking at which gases could produce static electricity. She also filed a number of patents, such as a thermostatically controlled cooking stove, before she died in 1888.

FROM Katherine Johnson, known for her pioneering work at NASA, to Nobel prizewinning physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell and epidemiologist Sunetra Gupta, women have contributed hugely to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). But that contribution often remains undervalued, and in the UK a false narrative persists that science is a boys’ subject and that girls lack the aptitude for study or work in STEM disciplines.

These long-standing negative assumptions were displayed recently at an inquiry on diversity in STEM by the UK parliament’s Science and Technology Committee. Katharine Birbalsingh, head of Michaela Community School in London and chair of the Social Mobility Commission, said that girls in her school have a and that it involves “hard maths”, which girls would “rather not do”.

Contrary to Birbalsingh’s comments, that girls are just as capable as boys: girls outperform their male peers in GCSE maths and science qualifications, taken from age 14, with 68 per cent getting grades A*-C in 2015 versus 65 per cent for boys.

Yet despite this, only around for the A level qualification in physics, taken from age 16, are girls. There are clearly underlying reasons behind these statistics, but Birbalsingh’s comments highlight exactly the kind of harmful stereotypes that have led many young women to disengage from these subjects.

Research has found that, despite being very capable, many girls lack proportionate confidence in their maths and physics abilities because they feel they aren’t .

This is partly due to a of the “effortlessly clever physicist” (whereby physics is presented as something that comes naturally, rather than something to work at), as well as : the very same troubling narrative that Birbalsingh was espousing.

It is also much harder for girls to aspire to STEM careers if there are no female role models for them to look up to in their studies. Representation of inspiring female scientists could be a crucial part of raising aspirations and dismantling harmful stereotypes. However, , only Rosalind Franklin and Mary Leakey are mentioned. By contrast, 40 male scientists’ names can be found.

It is clear that the design of exam specifications, ingrained societal attitudes and in some of the UK’s schools need to be re- evaluated and addressed.

As research from , greater support for teachers is needed so that they can better understand the complex and invisible ways in which gender, class and racial inequalities are reinforced through teaching.

Some studies also suggest that girls place a greater value on seeing the , and engage better with a I can identify with this. Despite my A grades, I dropped physics and maths after GCSE. I later went on to be part of a team doing a physics-based project, where I had the opportunity to work on a real-life physics challenge. This sparked a new-found love of the subject, sadly too late to study it further.

If ingrained attitudes about science and misplaced cultural gender stereotypes lead to systemic barriers that dissuade girls from engaging, then, as a community, we need to examine our own attitudes and failings. It is time to call out opinions like Birbalsingh’s, and create a learning environment that actively , in order to support girls and other under-represented groups to thrive in STEM subjects.

Maria Rossini is head of education at the British Science Association. @MariaTKRossini

, with MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences

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ON 8 March every year, millions of people celebrate International Women’s Day, a slot in the global calendar that is both a unifying recognition of the achievements of women and an urgent warning that gender inequality is still rife.

Science, of course, is no exception to this. Women still make up just , while men dominate the highest-paying sectors, such as . A decade ago, to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day and to help address these crucial gaps, the Suffrage Science awards were born.

The , hosted weekly by science communicator Kat Arney, explains the prizes’ origins by shining a spotlight on past winners, women who have achieved extraordinary things in their careers despite facing an all-too-familiar bias and a lack of opportunities.

In the first episode, Arney talks to the founders of the project: Amanda Fisher, director of the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences, and Vivienne Parry, a science writer and broadcaster. As Arney explains, the awards work by selecting the next winners based on nominations from previous ones, thereby helping to grow a global network of inspirational female role models. The awards, bespoke pieces of jewellery that pay homage to scientific research and the suffrage movement, are passed on to new winners every two years.

Since 2011, 148 women across many scientific disciplines and countries have won awards. Their impact and reach surprised Parry – as she tells Arney, they have seen some early nominees become fine scientists, heading their own departments and creating a new cohort of great scientists.

The episode also features women’s rights activist Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, who led the UK suffragette movement.

In episode two, Arney talks to Sally Davies, the first female master of Trinity College, University of Cambridge, and former chief medical officer for England, who won a Suffrage Science award in 2011. Among Davies’s many achievements – and the one she is most proud of, she tells Arney – was putting the global threat of antimicrobial resistance firmly on the UK’s radar.

Her successes were accompanied by the difficulties of simply being a woman, as she explains: “I’ve always felt throughout my career that I had to be better than the men to get the job, not as good as [them].”

Listening to Fisher and other guests, I felt connected to them through our shared struggles as women and the recognition of how deeply gender discrimination is etched into every aspect of our experience. But underlying this solidarity, a tough message remains: we haven’t made the progress in improving prospects for women that we like to think we have, says Fisher. For example, there is much to be done in addressing issues faced by women from ethnic minority backgrounds.

The pandemic has and even reversed progress in some cases, with women doing by far the majority of homeschooling and childcare, often putting their own jobs at risk. For Helen Pankhurst, there needs to be a new narrative. “Fundamentally, it’s about saying this isn’t good enough – this isn’t good enough for me, for the next generations, for those that came before us. We can and we must do better.”

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What is it?

is the world’s greatest science festival, running at the ExCel Centre in London from Thursday 10th to Sunday 13th October. Don’t worry if you haven’t got tickets, you can buy them on the door.

Where is 91av Live?

91av Live is at the ExCel Centre at London Docklands. The address is:��Royal Victoria Dock, 1 Western Gateway, Royal Docks, London E16 1XL

What’s the vibe?

Nerdy fun for all ages. This year’s event will feature over 140 talks and a huge range of interactive experiences, workshops and performances.

Who are the speakers?

The main stage lineup features such amazing names as British astronaut ��, the discoverer of our ancient human relatives Homo naledi; biological anthropologist ��the astronomer royal��, and , who led the United Nations climate negotiations from 2010 to 2016.

Then there are five more stages with different themes: cosmos, humans, Earth, technology and engineering. Here you’ll find neuroscientist , architect , geneticist , palaeontologist , ocean explorer , engineer ��and many more. Plus you can see TV stars like�� and on our performance stage.

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What else is going on?

On top of that, there are over 150 exhibits including a virtual reality roller coaster, rocket building, the operating room of the future, a pop-up planetarium and a huge moon installation.

When and where?

10 to 13 October at ExCeL in London.

Can school groups come?

Absolutely – we have schools’ tickets available on Thursday 10 and Friday 11 October. On Thursday we have a with dedicated content around the curriculum.

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Can I come just for the evening?

Yes – on Friday 11 October, we’re open until 9pm. Friday night allow access from 5pm onwards for drinks, discussions and after-dark entertainment, like Julia Shaw’s talk on ��and Bobby Seagull presents the��.

How do I get tickets?

Head over to the – you’ll find lots more info there about what’s on and how to get there.

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