Alice Roberts

The academic, writer, broadcaster and ‘science storyteller’ Professor Alice Roberts shares what’s important to her – and humanity as a whole

- Danielle Woodward

Sexism makes me angry; it’s hard to get perspective when you’re in the middle of it, so you tend to assume, ‘I must be rubbish.’ I was once told I didn’t get a promotion because I didn’t have ‘gravitas’, but I was already working at that level. Did it mean that I didn’t have a beard or some other male appendage? We all need to tackle gender bias, as it’s unconscious and so pervasive, with women as well as men. Studies have shown that when people have seen CVs with names that suggest males and females, that the males will be scored more highly – and it’s not just men doing that.

It’s so important to give people access to science, making sure they’re informed so they can make decisions about themselves and society. Science enriches our culture, and the storytelling element of it is wonderful. There’s a false distinction between the humanities and the sciences; it’s as if the sciences aren’t anything to do with the experiences of being human but, to me, they are. Studying science develops critical thinking skills, and that’s present in other subjects too – we denigrate subjects, like history, to ‘just an arts subject’, but how can you divide the subjects in the world into arts and sciences?