Rediscovering The Lost Role Models For Girls Who Want To Be Scientists

This is an excerpt from Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science And The World, which features biographies of important female scientists you have—and perhaps haven't—ever heard of. — This is an excerpt from Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science And The World, which features biographies of important female scientists you have—and perhaps haven’t—ever heard of.

Women have made enormous contributions to STEM fields for centuries. But you might be hard pressed to know that from our regular histories. A new book gives these women their just credit.

My book about scientists began with beef stroganoff. According to the New York Times, Yvonne Brill made a mean one. In an obituary published in March 2013, Brill was honored with the title of “world’s best mom” because she “followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” Only after a loud, public outcry did the Times amend the article so it would begin with the contribution that earned Brill a featured spot in the paper of record in the first place: “She was a brilliant rocket scientist.” Oh right. That.

The error—stroganoff before science; domesticity before personal achievement—is so cringe-worthy because it’s a common one. In 1964, when Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin won the greatest award that chemistry has to offer, a paper declared “Nobel Prize for British Wife,” as if she had stumbled upon the complex structures of biochemical substances while matching her husband’s socks. We simply don’t speak of men in science this way. Their marital status isn’t considered necessary context in a biochemical breakthrough. Employment as an important aerospace engineer is not the big surprise hiding behind a warm plate of noodles. For men, scientific accomplishments are accepted as something naturally within their grasp.

In 1899, the inventor and physicist Hertha Ayrtonput on a demonstration showing her latest breakthrough in calming the temperament of the arc light, long notorious for hissing and flickering. When the paper reported on the presentation, it treated Ayrton like some kind of circus performer: “What astonished the lady visitors. . .was to find one of their own sex in charge of the most dangerous-looking of all the exhibits. Mrs. Ayrton was not a bit afraid.” Annoyed by this and many other similar perspectives, Ayrton called out a persistent problem with the way she and her contemporaries like Marie Curie were treated: “The idea of ‘women and science’ is entirely irrelevant. Either a woman is a good scientist or she is not; in any case she should be given opportunities, and her work should be studied from the scientific, not the sex, point of view.”

Even today, it’s important we hear those words again. We need not only fairer coverage of women in science, but more of it.

The Latest on: Women in science

[google_news title=”” keyword=”Women in science” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]

via Google News

Too Few Girls and Minorities Study Tech Subjects

The Latest on: Women in science

Runnels Women in Science Scholarship applications available now
on May 7, 2024 at 10:29 pm
Crawford County Conservation District is accepting applications for the Patty Runnels Women in Science Scholarship through June 10. The scholarship is awarded to a county student who is pursuing a ...
Argonne hosts 2024 Science Careers in Search of Women event
on May 5, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Science Careers in Search of Women event is dedicated to increasing diversity in science, engineering, technology and mathematics (STEM).
Women In Science News
on May 2, 2024 at 5:00 pm
KUCHING, Malaysia — Implicit gender and race bias within the conservation community may be undermining researchers’ work in both the field and in science publication, experts say. “One of the… ...
UW Hosts Women in STEM Conference May 14
on May 2, 2024 at 9:36 am
More than 650 junior and senior high school female students from across the state have signed up to learn more about science and its various disciplines on the University of Wyoming campus.
The Poetic Lives of Lost Women of Math and Science
on May 1, 2024 at 5:00 pm
When poet Jessy Randall started researching the lives of female scientists, she became angry. And we certainly can relate here at Lost Women of Science. So many women made important discoveries but ...
Women in HPC’s Diversity and Inclusion Events at ISC 2024
on April 30, 2024 at 3:09 pm
Women in HPC (WHPC) will lead discussions on diversity and inclusion with the HPC community at this year’s ISC High Performance conference (ISC 2024), which will be held May 12-17 in Hamburg. "As a ...
Spanish Women in Science
on April 30, 2024 at 5:30 am
Spanish oceanographer, biologist, and writer. Maria Andresa Casamayor (1720- 1780), Spanish mathematician. Margarita Salas (1938-2019), Spanish biochemist. Ángeles Alvariño (1916 2005), Spanish ...
ASU's WiSTEM Club: Empowering women in science and beyond
on April 23, 2024 at 7:22 pm
Clubs like WiSTEM are instrumental in challenging the existing biases in STEM fields. Through their initiatives and consistent support, WiSTEM at ASU is a vital source of empowerment, education and ...
Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine
on April 15, 2024 at 5:00 pm
The Committee on Women in Science, Engineering and Medicine uses scientific evidence to advance gender equity in science, engineering, and medicine. The committee takes an intersectional approach to ...
25 Of The Most Brilliant Women In Science
on April 9, 2024 at 9:23 am
But Marie didn’t stop there: in her widowhood, Curie won another Nobel prize, cementing herself in history as a role model for women in science. Behind her scientific honors, however ...