Celebrating Cambridge Women: Part II

In the second part of our series marking Women's History Month, we are delighted to shine a light on some more of the inspiring women living and working here at Cambridge.

From distinguished chemists, to the rising stars of politics. From social media experts, to historians transforming feminist history. Cambridge women are creating history and building the future across all sectors, for everyone.

Here they share the advice they've learned along the way, and the songs that lift them up when the going gets tough - which we've turned into a public playlist.

Scroll down to be inspired and empowered.
You could even listen to the playlist as you read...

Professor Jane Clarke, BA PGCE, MSc PhD, FMedSci, FRS

Jane is a distinguished biophysical chemist and the first female President of Wolfson College.

She is recognised internationally for her multidisciplinary studies that have advanced the understanding of protein folding and misfolding, as well as for her former role as Professor of Molecular Biophysics in the Chemistry Department of the University of Cambridge.

Jane started a PhD at the age of 40, after several years teaching in comprehensive schools in London and elsewhere. She studied for a post-doc in biological NMR at the MRC Centre for Protein Engineering and then re-joined the Chemistry department as a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow in 1997.

She has a particular interest in widening participation in education in general and science in particular. Jane has worked extensively to encourage young women to stay in science, as so many talented women are lost at the stage where they move between post-doctoral and faculty positions.

Jane knows by experience that, given a supportive environment, it is possible to have a successful academic career combined happily with being a mother (and grandmother!).

Jane's advice

Life is too short to ….

… allow others to decide your fate for you (as, for example, when I was told at the age of 40 that it wasn’t possible do a PhD while being a carer for two small children)

… allow others to define your success (don’t count my papers, just look at the quality of the research I produce and of the researchers I nurture)

… worry that you are not the perfect mother (your children won’t suffer irredeemable harm from wearing a shop-bought fancy dress costume!)

… spend your weekends doing housework (employ a cleaner!)

… spend your days doing a career you don’t enjoy (if you dread Mondays then STOP and find something else! Re-training and upskilling opportunities are there to be found)

Jane's song choice

I tend to listen to speech radio rather than music but these two would be on my playlist..

Bruce Springsteen – 'Born to Run'

That determination to move up, move out, and be fulfilled...
“Oh, someday, girl, I don't know when
We're gonna get to that place
Where we really wanna go and we'll walk in the sun
But 'til then, tramps like us
Baby, we were born to run”

OR The Welsh national anthem sung by a rugby crowd

To remind me of my family from the coal mining communities of the Rhondda – who valued education above anything as a way of ensuring that their children and grandchildren (me) could achieve anything they put their minds to. They are why I am here today.

Professor Jane Clarke

Dr Jessica Gardner

Jessica is University Librarian and Director of Library Services at Cambridge University Library. She is the second female in the history of the institution to hold the role.

She is passionate about the role of libraries and archives in research and committed to international collaboration through collections. Jessica is the Chair of Research Libraries UK and a Trustee of the Friends of the National Libraries.

Jessica's special areas of interest are the strategic development of collections for research; scholarly communications; the library as Space; Open Research and Open GLAM; Special Collections; Digital Humanities; leadership and organisational development. She believes that libraries are for everyone and wants Cambridge’s collections to be as open as possible for all to enjoy.

Jessica's advice

I have benefited throughout my career from the generosity and guidance of other women ‘passing it forward’. What I take from all their examples is the importance of kindness and hope, and I mean that for oneself as well as for others. To be generous to others, you have to be kind to yourself, and find the joy. Leadership roles are hugely rewarding, but they are also very tiring. You have to find what it is that lifts you and gives hope so you can keep going and take others with you. That can be in the smallest of gestures. Rarely have I smiled at someone without them smiling back, or been smiled at without my mood lifting. A sense of hope comes with being seen, being part of something and belonging. And never has it been more important to take that belief into the communities we work in. Michelle Obama calls it ‘the light we carry’ and I couldn’t put it better.

Jessica's song choice

During the pandemic, I kept going back to ‘My Silver Lining’ by First Aid Kit, with its lyrics ‘take me some place where there’s music and there’s laughter’ and core message about ‘keep on keeping on’.

But coming out of the pandemic, I’ve kept returning to an old favourite, which is Nina Simone’s version of ‘Here Comes The Sun’. It’s simple, beautiful and I defy you to not listen and sing (in my case badly) and feel lighter – put it in your ears on a sunny walk through the lanes of Cambridge and smile.

Dr Jessica Gardner

Mona Jebril

Mona is an interdisciplinary social scientist, currently working as a Research Fellow at the Faculty for Education.

She is also an honorary Research Associate at the Centre for Business Research and a Bye fellow of Education and Academic development at Queens' College. Mona was the first Gates Cambridge Scholar from the Gaza Strip and the second from Palestine.

Mona is currently working as part of the project, Close the Gap: Fair Admissions in Postgraduate Research". This is a joint project between Cambridge and Oxford universities which aims to transform doctoral student selection to develop a socially and epistemically just and inclusive environment for world-leading research.

Previously, Mona worked as part of the Global Challenge Research Fund project: Research for Health in Conflict with a focus on analysing the political economy of health in Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey, in relation to the Syrian conflict and the humanitarian crisis of refugees in these countries.

Mona's advice

I'd like to share this saying by Steve Biko: "The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed".

Mona kindly shared some insight behind her wonderful photo with Superman.

I think like me, most girls grew up watching Superman. The only woman that could fly in the sky was the one that Superman has loved in the film. She had no super powers of her own, she was only able to fly because she was being selected/loved by him. He annexed her to his super powers, and she couldn't be happier.

As a child growing in a family of girls and boys, with girls being older than the boys, I felt this was humiliating and unfair. I also wondered so often whether I will ever be able to fly if I don't get someone to love me - but I really wanted to fly. So for me, stopping to take this picture was instinctive, as if I was getting back to the memory of this childhood bewilderment, asserting that I can fly with my own 'superpowers' (although fairly enough, I wouldn't mind being together with a Superman in the sky!)

From an equality perspective, I do have reservations on the concept of a 'super person' because all of us have our own superpowers, and we are equal in that sense. But still the superman figure exists in the memory of many people, and if it does, then let it be presented with a more empowering image of a superwoman in space. Ha-ha!

And I think it was a meant-to-be coincidence for me to be wearing some matching colours on that day!

Mona's song choice

I'd like to share this Arabic song, Nassam Alayna El Hawa, for Fairouz.

Mona Jebril

Amy Mollett

Amy is Head of Social Media and AV. She leads on the University’s social media, film, photography and podcasting strategies.

She has previously been Head of Social Media at the Houses of Parliament and the London School of Economics, where she built the university’s first social media strategy and launched the most-followed Instagram channel in UK Higher Education.

Amy also played a leading role in LSE’s award-winning academic blogs, as editor of LSE Impact of Social Sciences blog and LSE Review of Books. With her fellow blog editors, Amy is co-author of Communicating Your Research with Social Media: A Practical Guide to Using Blogs, Podcasts, Data Visualisations and Video (SAGE: 2017).

She regularly speaks at events and conferences on digital and social media strategy, most recently at the DODS Public Sector Social Media Conference 2021, at the European Consortium for Political Research General Conference 2020, and the CASE Social Media and Higher Education Conference 2019.

Amy's advice

Some great advice from a previous manager was how important it is for women to apply for new senior roles when they come up. Academia and politics are still so unbalanced and unrepresentative at the top, so if a new opportunity comes up, don't doubt yourself and just go for it. You should apply because there will already be large parts of the job you can do, and anything else you can learn along the way and become an expert in. And if you don't go for the job, then a man probably less qualified might get it, and then they'll be your manager.

Anecdotally and in research, there are lots of examples of women generally undervaluing their skills and experience, so I always try and encourage women I manage to think about careers, work-life balance, and challenging their current place in the work hierarchy.

Amy's song choice

Every morning I get the train up to Cambridge from East London, and I have a playlist of power up songs by women for this very purpose!

My three favourites currently are 'Song 4 Mutya', by Groove Armada; 'Woman', by Little Simz and Cleo Sol; and 'Mr. Sun (Miss da sun)' by Greentea Peng.

Amy Mollett

Professor Lucy Delap

Lucy is a Professor in Modern British and Gender History, senior editor for History & Policy and a Fellow at Murray Edwards College.

She has worked throughout her research career on the history of feminisms, particularly aiming to draw out stories and perspectives that are less well known, and which challenge the Eurocentrism of many past histories. She’s worked recently on the involvement of men in activism for gender justice and against gender-based violence. Her current research focuses on disabled people’s labour, and their resistance to stigma and exclusion in the twentieth century.

Lucy's work has been widely published, including the prize-winning book The Feminist Avant-Garde: Transatlantic Encounters of the early twentieth century. Most recently, she's explored global perspectives through the publication of Feminisms: a global history in 2020.

She's also published extensively on feminist debates about individualism, men’s involvement, contentious campaigns on rape and child sexual abuse, orientalist and racialised feminisms, anti-feminism and feminist businesses.

Lucy's advice

Most liberating advice: Stay hopeful. It’s a daunting prospect in today’s landscape of escalating violence and environmental breakdown, but as William Beveridge once said, ‘scratch a pessimist and you’ll find a defender of privilege.’ If we want to challenge the status quo and make change happen, we need to stay optimistic that change is possible. My professional life as a historian is all about charting change, and in human history there has never been a regime or site of power that has ever stayed fixed and stable when viewed in the long term. Hope needs to imbue our lives, our studies and our teaching.

Lucy's song choice

The Raincoats, No One’s Little Girl.

Professor Lucy Delap

Veronica Hera

Veronica is a PhD student in Politics and International Studies and Academic Affairs Officer at Hughes Hall.

She was one of eight 2021 International Migrants Day Ambassadors, nominated for their extraordinary achievements and the contribution they make everyday to their communities.

Veronica came to the UK as a student to Cambridge University from Romania in 2018 and has volunteered for The Young Europeans, The 3 Million and Cleaners United as well as advising on the youth settlement scheme.

She’s passionate about migrants’ rights and has done a lot of work within the Romanian community supporting people to apply for the EU Settlement Scheme.

Veronica's advice

A piece of advice from my mum that stuck with me over the years would be the following: 'Listen to yourself more – do what YOU want, not what someone else wants you to do. And don’t doubt your intuition – more often than not, you will see that your first impression of a situation is the right one.'

Veronica's song choice

Two came to mind: "Remember the Name" by Ed Sheeran featuring Eminem and 50 Cent, which is more centred around empowerment and motivating yourself and “Little Things” by One Direction, which I think speaks more about learning to love yourself while overcoming your insecurities. Feel free to pick whichever one you think fits better with the theme of the playlist!