In her capacity as a Girlguiding Advocate, Upper Sixth student Alice Pinney was invited to speak at the Royal Societies Annual Diversity Conference on Thursday 16th November, alongside a panel of CEOs from various charities.

Alice gave a 20-minute speech on diversity in STEM, focusing on how gender stereotypes affect girls wanting to enter the industry and summarises her experience below:

“The main points of my speech were that girls are facing gender stereotypes in STEM, which is a deterrence to girls who want to enter the field. I spoke on how we can address these stereotypes through more female role models in STEM and an elimination of gender stereotypes in society. I emphasised Girlguiding's work, which wants to ensure that girls have equal opportunity and exposure to STEM, and that they do not feel constrained by gender stereotypes when choosing a career.

Overall, it was a real privilege to speak to people who have the power to make a genuine difference and speak on behalf of all girls who want to enter the field of STEM.”

You can watch the Royal Societies Annual Diversity Conference on YouTube. Alice takes the stage at 1:40:00 here.