On Tuesday 10 March 2015 staff and students at the School of Chemistry, Food and Pharmacy (SCFP) at the University of Reading attended a lunchtime event hosted by the SCFP Athena SWAN committee’s chairperson, Dr Joanne Elliott. The event “Heroines of Science” was scheduled to coincide with International Women’s Day (8 March) and a number of staff made presentations celebrating the past achievements of female scientists.

Pharmacy Practice staff supported the event through their attendance and Dr Parastou Donyai presented a brief history of Women in Pharmacy around the time of the formation of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain and succeeding decades. Nineteenth Century attitudes to women in pharmacy were certainly very different to present-day Britain as this contribution to The Pharmaceutical Journal in 1873 makes clear!

(Source: RPharmS.com)

The National Association of Women Pharmacists (NAWP) (http://www.nawp.org.uk/) has existed for over 100 years and the Royal Pharmaceutical Society has very recently launched the Women in Pharmacy network.