Lack of gender balance in Irish science branded a ‘disaster’

The small number of women involved in science, engineering and maths could “spell disaster” for innovation in Ireland, according to Christine Loscher an immunologist at Dublin City University.

Loscher was speaking ahead of a talk on 21 March made at a Girls Hack Ireland event at the university. She speculated whether women were “becoming an endangered species in the digital economy”.

Of the 2,613 applicants to study computer science in 2013 only 436 were women, she said. And womens’ involvement in STEM subjects had fallen from a high of 47 per cent several years ago to 40 per cent today.