I am torn: I think it can be a career cul de sac for women scientists to be pushed into these sorts of roles so actually it’s good if female physicists are doing physics rather than EDI nonsense. And Dr Barker might be good at the role so should be given a chance.
But but but…clearly it’s a ridiculous appointment and D B has faced no problems in his career from being a white man. And I have skin in the game - my DD graduated with her Masters in Physics with Distinction and having won a ton of prizes along the way - and what stopped her continuing her career in academia was the horrendous sexism exhibited by her fellow students, supervisors and lecturers. She decided she had no interest in being a token female, fighting this culture and expected to do diversity work on top of her own academic work and instead would go and make a tonne of money working for an investment bank, not because she cares about the money but because it would be a meritocratic environment where she would be judged purely on how good she is at her job.
She’s exactly the sort of person who is a great loss to science, and there is nothing about this appointment that would change her mind. She had been toying with taking up her phd place after a couple of years out but this won’t make her want to.