Women in the chemical sciences continue to be underrepresented and undervalued1. More often than not, women and minority genders systemically and individually face many more professional hurdles than their male counterparts. With our Women in Chemistry series, we shine a light on some of the women researchers in our community. We bring them into the spotlight to hear about their interests and experiences. Beyond sharing with us their journeys, passions, philosophies, and ideas for moving their respective fields forwards, our participants have valuable advice to impart on those starting out in the chemical sciences (Fig. 1).

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Advice from our participants for researchers starting out in chemical research.

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They additionally answer questions on what they feel is needed to retain more women in chemistry, e.g. from PhD level to Professorship; what employers, research institutions, funders, publishers, editors and conference organizers can do to better support women scientists; how individual scientists themselves can support and celebrate their women colleagues; and where they hope to see women in chemistry in 20 years’ time.

We interview researchers from both academia and industry, with diverse identities and backgrounds, and in a multitude of geographical locations. As described by Dr Janelle Sauvageau in her Q&A piece, it is clear from our respondents that women in chemistry face a wide variety of different experiences, and that each researcher’s challenges and triumphs vary by person, by country, by employer, and even by department. The key to supporting and celebrating women in chemistry must therefore be to listen to them, to understand the challenges specific to them, and hear their perspectives on how to resolve them.

With this Q&A series, we hope that you—our readers—and the chemistry community at large will enjoy hearing and listening to the experiences, wisdom and advice of our respondents.