Yesterday, I was happy to see Tom Hunter, director of the Arthur C Clarke Award, announce that he and I are working together to bring our two organisations closer together. In 2013, the Clarke Award was criticised for having an all-male shortlist. Having an all-male shortlist once in a while (this was only the second in nearly 30 years) should surprise no one, given how few science fiction books by women are published and then submitted for awards. Its statistical inevitability doesn’t, however, mean that the question of how many women write in the genre should go unexamined. Indeed, Tom and I have had some very long, very interesting conversations about it, and it was these conversations that lead us to decide to find a way to bring our organisations together.

STEM and science fiction suffer from the same ‘pipeline’ problem — it’s hard to attract women, and harder to retain them. And both fields have a problem with prejudice, including conscious sexism and the more pernicious unconscious bias. These are complex cultural challenges that need a lot of unpicking, and for which there isn’t a silver bullet. I’ve always been a pluralist and believe that to effectively tackle this problem we need to take many different approaches, none of which will be able to solve the whole problem, but each of which can deal with a particular facet. Together, these many different approaches can effect significant change.

One of the reasons I’ve been wanting to work with the Clarke Award is that there is a delightful overlap between science fiction and STEM, one that I’m keen to explore. Science fiction has inspired many a youngster to go into STEM, and advances in STEM have in turn inspired more authors than we can count. I’m excited to think about how a collaboration between ALD and the Clarke Award can help women on both sides of that equation!

Another reason for this is more personal: I grew up reading my Dad’s science fiction collection. Indeed, I graduated straight from Nancy Drew to Arthur C Clarke, EE Doc Smith, Isaac Asimov, Robert Heinlein and whatever else my Dad had on his bookshelves. I read anything and everything, frequently when I should have been asleep.

The first science fiction author that I discovered for myself was Anne McCaffrey and she became one of my favourites. For the first time, I could read about women’s heroism, from a woman’s perspective. So much science fiction then was by men, about men, and for men, and whilst I would read it all and enjoy quite a bit of it, it didn’t speak to me. McCaffrey did.

Whether it was her Pern series, or The Crystal Singer, or Dinosaur Planet, or the Talents series, or any of her other books, McCaffrey’s women were opinionated, strong, talented, flawed and, above all, interesting. And they provided me with the the kinds of female role models that I didn’t see in everyday life, or even on TV. Although I didn’t realise it at the time, my main role models as a teen were McCaffrey’s Lessa and Killashandra, followed the very real Maggie Philbin, presenter on Tomorrow’s World. And that, really was all there was.

Role models aren’t just living women, or historical women, they are fictitious women too. We make sense of the world using stories, and fiction helps us explore ideas of what life would be like in a different reality. Before we can do something, we have to imagine it. Seeing women as leading characters in my favourite books, reading about women doing science, exploring the universe, as experts and leaders, and yes, even flying dragons, helps us to imagine ourselves doing those things, (especially flying dragons). These stories told me that someone, somewhere, thought that women could be more than just a footnote, a nameless character in the background, or a gruesome death to motivate a man.

So working with Tom and the Clarke Award on the issues facing women in science fiction speaks directly to the core mission of Ada Lovelace Day: to create new role models for girls and women in STEM. And it adds a new one: to inspire science fiction authors, especially women, with the amazing, astounding and real stories of women in STEM.

Venue Partner: The IET

I’m delighted to announce that The IET, one of the world’s leading professional societies for the engineering and technology community, is supporting us this year by becoming our Venue Partner for Ada Lovelace Day Live!

The IET run the prestigious IET Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award, the Mary George Memorial Prize for Apprentices and, in conjunction with the Women’s Engineering Society, the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) Prize. Aimed at early career professional women, aged between 18 and 35, and working in the UK, nominations for this year’s awards are still open, with a deadline of 30 June 2016.

You can follow The IET on Twitter: @IETWomenNetwork

We are very excited to be holding Ada Lovelace Day Live! in the newly refurbished Kelvin Lecture Theatre, and strongly suggest that you save the evening of Tuesday, 11 October and be ready to snap up tickets when they go on sale!

Sponsor: Ada Diamonds

I’m also thrilled to introduce you to another new sponsor, Ada Diamonds, who use cutting-edge technology to produce bespoke, sustainable, and conflict-free diamond jewellery. Their diamonds are “grown by scientists in labs around the world and are chemically identical to mined diamonds, but socially and environmentally superior to Earth-extracted diamonds”.

Ada Diamonds does not just use conflict-free lab-grown diamonds, they also only use “ethically sourced metals of the highest purity”. Their Ada Collection features earrings, necklaces, bracelets and rings in a variety of modern and traditional designs.

Ada Diamonds are possibly our most glamorous sponsor so far, and we’re looking forward to perhaps one day seeing their diamonds in person!

One hundred years ago today, the Royal Astronomical Society elected women as fellows for the first time in their history. Despite awarding its Gold Medal to Caroline Herschel in 1828 and giving an honorary membership to Mary Somerville in 1835, it was not until 1916 that women were admitted to the RAS. Says the RAS in today’s press release:

Mary Adele Blagg, Ella K Church, A Grace Cook and Fiammetta Wilson became the first elected female Fellows of the RAS on 14 January 1916. Six more followed that year, including Annie Maunder, more than 24 years after her first attempt to join.

Dr Bailey [Astronomy Secretary] commented: “Early women astronomers fought hard to gain recognition for their work, to be allowed to join the RAS and to take part in scientific discussions. I am both grateful they did so and in awe of their determination to succeed. They paved the way for women today and many are tough acts for us to follow.”

As part of their year long celebration of this milestone, the RAS will be the Platinum Sponsor of this year’s Ada Lovelace Day Live!. We are looking forward to working with them over the coming months to highlight the crucial roles that women have played in astronomy over the centuries, and are honoured to be a part of such an important anniversary.