What have Heather the Weather, the first female moderator of the Church of Scotland, and the crime fighter tasked with tackling Scotland’s problem with violence all got in common?
For a start, the three of them are acclaimed Scots women who reached the top in typically male-dominated fields - but also they were all yesterday awarded honorary doctorates by the Open University.
Meteorologist and physicist Heather Reid, Karyn McCluskey, the Director of the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit, and Alison Elliot, the first female Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, were all honoured at a graduation ceremony in Edinburgh yesterday.
The institution is known for it’s accessibility, inclusivity and encouragement of students who may not otherwise be able to fulfil their dreams of gaining a university degree.
The three women they have chosen to name as honorary graduates fit perfectly with their ethos, having achieved the often unachievable in male-dominated industries.
“Is it an equal society? Not yet. I still encounter sexism,” admitted McCluskey, who joined 460 other graduates at Edinburgh’s Usher Hall yesterday. She added: “I still encounter some really antiquated views. Frankly it’s not my problem, it’s their problem.”
Famous meteorologist Dr Heather Reid OBE, known by thousands of Scots as TV’s “Heather The Weather”, now works with adults and children to encourage them to get more involved in science.
She admitted there is still a lot more work to be done to encourage women into science, particularly in her field of physics.
“I was in an honours year [at university], there was a lot less people in the class 20 years ago, about 25 I think, but there were only four females,” Reid explained.
She thinks the way forward for women in science starts in the classroom, by inspiring more female graduates to go into teaching.
“We need to look at how we can inspire female physics graduates to become teachers, for example. There have been studies showing female mentors can act as an inspiration for other young women,” Reid said.
“All of these things take time and it’s difficult.”
The final woman to be selected by the university to receive the honorary degree was Alison Elliot, OBE.
The Edinburgh woman said when she was made the first female Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, it represented the long fight by many other women to ensure females reached the top tiers of power within the Church.
Elliot said: “I think it was a time when the Church was ready for a woman Moderator, I happened to have the background that fitted it.
“I wasn’t conscious of fighting myself, but I know many people have fought for the cause of women being ordained in the Church and being in this role of Moderator. I was fortunate that the Church was ready for that move when I became Moderator and I was welcomed all over the place.”
John D’Arcy, Acting Director of The Open University in Scotland, said the women had been nominated by staff from across the country and represented the university’s values.
He said: “They are very different people but they all fit in with our mission statement as a university – to be open to people. They are using their creative endeavour, almost like an entrepreneurial spirit, to change lives.”
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