Science jobs for the girls

When Quality Officer, Jennifer Peterson from Liverpool was growing up as a girl she always dreamed she would be working with water in some capacity, but as a marine biologist rather than in a laboratory at United Utilities!  She joined United Utilities thirteen years ago, and today her role within scientific services at United Utilities ensures safe and high quality drinking water to seven million customers around the clock.

Jennifer is just one of thousands of women, working across the North West for United Utilities, an organisation that embraces diversity and removes gender career barriers. She’s happy to step into the spotlight as part of International Day of Women and Science (Sunday 11 February 2024) to help close the gender gap, a subject she’s passionate about.

Jennifer explains: ‘The laboratory operation at United Utilities is huge – we do more than 750,000 tests every year, even working on Christmas Day, making sure that our drinking water is top quality right the way through the process from the reservoir to the tap.  Although I work on the testing side it’s not just a case of putting things in a machine and the computers churning out results. No two days are ever the same in my job and I am constantly being stretched and challenged, discovering new things and finding solutions. 

She left school with Biology & Chemistry A-levels (as well as psychology and English Language & Literature)  and then Studied Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester before working in a diverse range of laboratory settings and starting her career with United Utilities in 2011.

But when it comes to opportunities in science, Jennifer’s passionate about seeing changes in the classroom and careers advice to remove misconceptions, emphasise the importance of mathematics and promoting the exciting range of careers open to women by following scientific subjects.

She says: ‘I’d always been fascinated by the workings of the world and these qualifications allowed me to delve into it. But I think there’s a perception that these subjects are just for boys, or that they are really difficult, not sexy somehow or that you need to be super clever – and you don’t!’

Alongside her laboratory role at United Utilities, Jennifer regularly visits Liverpool University where she’s involved in projects which support the promotion of STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects. But as a mum of two young children (a boy and a girl) she feels the solutions starts earlier by encouraging confidence in girls in the classroom in maths and science lessons.

Jennifer said: ‘Even toys reinforce gender roles – with most engineering based, logic toys being aimed at boys. I certainly encourage both my children to do the same thing. For example, my daughter really loves LEGO® and if my son wants to play with dollies that’s fine.’

‘We also need to see more positive women role models from the industry. For example, there wasn’t a female scientist visible in the media during the Covid period of lockdown. And it’s true, if you can’t see it you can’t be it.’