When I got engaged to be married, it was assumed that I would quit science and be a housewife. It was considered shameful if a married woman had to work – it implied that her husband couldn’t earn enough to keep her.
Arguably, my student status and perhaps my gender were also my downfall with respect to the Nobel Prize, which was awarded to Professor Antony Hewish and Professor Martin Ryle. At the time, science was still perceived as being carried out by distinguished men.
Women of my generation who’ve stayed in science have done it by playing the men at their own game.
I’m one of the few women in science. I have pioneered that. One of the things I worry about is what that pioneering has done to me. I have had to fight quite hard most of the way through life.
When I went to my local grammar school, Lurgan College, girls were not encouraged to study science. My parents hit the roof and, along with other parents, demanded a curriculum change.