In this film, which forms part of The Rising Tide: Women at Cambridge exhibition, the astrophysicist Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell comments on the tendency of British culture to discourage women from pursuing science:

I would encourage girls to do science, they’re really good at it. I know it’s flying in the face of British social convention. In other countries, there aren’t the same issues about women doing science but our culture here tends to discourage women. We need women to do science, it’s as simple as that … I believe that if you can increase the diversity of people doing the science you will probably bring in more unexpected developments.