You are currently reading Issue 143: Women in Mathematics, May 2022
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Connecting women and opportunity

Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

Connecting women and opportunity

Womanthology is a digital magazine and professional community powered by female energy and ingenuity.

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Using maths to help fight inequality and end period poverty

Mhairi Cochrane, Co-Founder of Floco

Floco

Mhairi Cochrane is a co-founder of Floco, which began with her friend and fellow co-founder, Alison Wood, as a student project after they learned about the impact of period poverty and its stigma. Floco makes comfy, reusable period pads that last 100 washes and save 64kg of plastic waste over the pad’s lifetime. Mhairi and Alison are passionate champions of gender equality through fighting all inequalities, using compassionate innovation and working with other organisations to help increase knowledge around and access to period products.

Mhairi Cochrane
Mhairi Cochrane

“Maths provides such a great set of analytical and problem-solving skills. Being able to identify and solve a problem is something founders have to do every day.”

From Lilypads to Floco

I studied history at the University of Edinburgh, having graduated in 2020. I have also been drawn to learning more about social issues and how these impact people. Floco started as a student project (called Lilypads) when I was studying at university after I learned about the impact of period poverty and stigma. I realised I wanted to continue to grow this project after I graduated.

The role of a founder

As a founder, my role is unbelievably varied. I am involved in every part of the organisation; the business (sales, marketing, finances), education (designing education workshops, liaising with schools or universities, actually delivering our workshops to schools), the charity (organising donations, collaborating with other charities) as well as general tasks such as networking, supporting my team, administration and setting objectives/targets.

Fighting inequality

I have always been passionate about fighting inequality. Even when I was younger, I remember getting into arguments with certain teachers or peers about casual sexism. Although I didn’t have the language and understanding I have now, sexism and inequality always angered me.

FlocoLearning about the impact of period poverty after volunteering with another charity and then conducting my own research within Scottish high schools completely shocked me, how could people with periods still face injustice, stigma and shame in the 21st century? For me championing gender equality is about fighting all inequalities and ensuring that everyone is able to live their life in the way they want to. Gender inequality is tied to wider inequalities and we have to advocate and fight these if we want to create a gender equal world.

Using maths in a start-up company

I was approached to deliver a Maths4Girls talk with a local school.

Maths provides such a great set of analytical and problem-solving skills. Being able to identify and solve a problem is something founders have to do every day. These problems can range from tiny hurdles to pretty urgent, companywide problems, but the general process remains the same: Being able to stay calm; analyse what is in front of you and try to come up with a solution is a skill that maths really develops. The equation or question may change but the ability to try and solve it using your skills stays the same.

I had a great maths teacher at school — he made it fun and helped me realise that liking maths did not mean I had to shut out other interests. I have always been pretty creative and more interested in human focussed topics — he really stressed that you didn’t have to choose. You could like maths, history, art and PE all at the same time. Just follow what you like.

Bringing people together creates incredible results

Like any industry, sector or part of life we need diversity. It should be our central focus. There are so many challenges facing society at the moment and these are only going to be solved by finding creative and collaborative solutions. We need different types of people in the room to try and solve these problems because the solutions are not going to be a repeat of what has come before. Diverse thinking and bringing different types of people together also creates incredible results.

Floco, the next chapter…

Floco has just started its next chapter — we are really excited about developing our charity organisation and the work it carries out including expanding our education programme.

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