The recent surge of activity in women’s rights and equality in the workplace has been paralleled with a movement of women working in vision-related sciences and healthcare. It still remains that, globally, women face a gender wage gap, earning the equivalent of only 77% of their male counterparts. Women held just 12% of the world's positions on boards of directors in 2015 [1].

According to statistics provided in The Lancet editorial: ‘A year of reckoning for women in science’, women across Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (STEMM) have been short-changed in terms of promotions, higher pay and recognition awards [2]. Women are not necessarily paid less for doing the same jobs as men, but are more likely to be in lower-paid jobs. Media and professional opinion is divided on why this is so; some believe it is due to traditional beliefs, preconceptions or religion. It is an emotive subject where conclusions, whether right or wrong, are drawn. However, it is clear that women are more likely to be their children’s main carers and are more likely to have to take a step back from their careers for a certain amount of time. In eight countries polled by The Economist and YouGov in 2017, 44–75% of women with children living at home said they had started working fewer hours or switched to a less-demanding job, since becoming mothers. Only 13–37% of fathers said they had done the same [3].

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