3. Pioneering Female Physicist on Challenging Sexism in the Workplace with Dame Athene Donald

“We're still a minority and people still forget to invite you to the pub after work, they talk over you in meetings. There are still ways in which the male majority in a field like mine doesn't quite take women seriously.” Athene’s first sense that a career in physics was meant for her came when she was a young child. She was sick and had to stay in bed. During this time, she describes noticing something that intrigued her. “I remember shutting one eye and then the other eye and seeing how my nose got in the way.” It would turn out that Athene had discovered how light travels in a straight line but she wouldn’t have the words to articulate this until she began taking physics at school.