If you stay in -- if your marks stay high enough -- Her Majesty is paying you to study, effectively. The "no grants or scholarships" is a "no, you cannot buy influence over this" measure, at institutional scale, and "no one has time for this" measure at personal scale. (There are a lot of weird little scholarships out there; figuring out how to plead for funds ought not to be a core skill in academia.)
STEM hasn't corroded much, but STEM was also where the "if you're not a man, you're going to leave" is worst. I remember 80s compsci classes as being a third women, and rising; I can't remember the last time we got a female applicant for a developer position. The informal collective decision that this was not a girl thing needs correcting. (Which is easier as the relative salaries drop.)
no subject
STEM hasn't corroded much, but STEM was also where the "if you're not a man, you're going to leave" is worst. I remember 80s compsci classes as being a third women, and rising; I can't remember the last time we got a female applicant for a developer position. The informal collective decision that this was not a girl thing needs correcting. (Which is easier as the relative salaries drop.)