Women in Chemistry

Women in Chemistry at Oxford have a long history dating back to the 1880s when the first female students were admitted to study chemistry, and including the pioneering work of Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, who won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964.

Today we are proud to have more women studying and working in Chemistry at Oxford than ever before and to celebrate their milestones and achievements. You can read about some of our students, staff, and friends in the linked Twitter thread, taken from International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2023.

Our women academics are powerful role models for the next generation of female chemists both within and beyond Oxford running ground-breaking research teams, winning prizes and fellowships, creating spin-out companies, and taking on major national roles in service to the discipline. Whilst we have made good progress, there is more work to do as we aspire to achieve gender balance within all our student and staff categories and to progress related initiatives. The Department holds a silver Athena SWAN award in recognition of our ongoing commitment to the promotion of gender diversity within the department and wider sector.

Founded in 2019, Oxford Women in Chemistry is a society within the Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford, that celebrates and promotes women in chemistry. WiChem aims to make the departmental culture more welcoming to everyone by organising events that encourage diversity, inclusion and peer support.

If you would like to stay up to date with OxWiChem events or be involved please visit our website to sign up to our mailing list and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.