tag:theconversation.com,2011:/fr/topics/women-in-science-217/articles
Women in science – The Conversation
2024-03-15T17:34:45Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/225844
2024-03-15T17:34:45Z
2024-03-15T17:34:45Z
This 18th-century shell collection, saved from a skip, tells a story of empire, explorers and women’s equality
<p>In the 1980s, a shell collection that included specimens from Captain Cook’s final voyage was accidentally thrown into a skip and believed lost forever. But much to the joy of scientists, last week it was <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/12/shells-from-captain-cooks-final-voyage-saved-from-skip">rediscovered safe and sound</a> and donated to English Heritage.</p>
<p>Her name might not have made the headlines, but the woman who originally collected the shells, Bridget Atkinson (1732-1814), made a significant contribution to natural history in the 18th century. </p>
<p>Atkinson was one of many women interested in shells at this time. It was a pursuit that drew in both aristocratic and middle class enthusiasts. Among them were famous collectors, such as the philosopher and poet <a href="https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/publications/browse/9780300192230">Margaret Cavendish</a> and cousins Jane and Mary Parminter, the elite owners of the shell-encrusted house <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/travel/2012/nov/16/feminist-eccentric-home-devon">A la Ronde, in Exmouth</a>. </p>
<p>Collecting shells was a common past time in Enlightenment Britain. This was a period in which elite women were becoming <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=xZFNEAAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=women+and+science+eighteenth+century&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=women%20and%20science%20eighteenth%20century&f=false">increasingly interested in the sciences</a>, and they pursued its disciplines with wild enthusiasm. </p>
<p>This is demonstrated in the popularity of books such as <a href="https://maa.org/press/periodicals/convergence/mathematical-treasure-francesco-algarotti-s-newtonianism-for-the-ladies#:%7E:text=The%20book%20consists%20of%20a,Naples%20on%20the%20title%20page.">Newtonianism for Ladies</a> by Francesco Algarotti. Published in 1737, the book was a bestseller and reprinted many times as the 18th century progressed. </p>
<p>Botany and natural history were deemed particularly appropriate vehicles for women’s intellectual curiosity. Women engaged in these practices were encouraged to <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=I1LzDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=women+and+science+eighteenth+century&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=women%20and%20science%20eighteenth%20century&f=false">collect specimens, create displays and study related literature</a>, often written by female authors. </p>
<p>As a result, the early 19th century saw the publication of various natural history books written by women, such as <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=k0YyAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_book_other_versions_r&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false">The Conchologist’s Companion</a> by Mary Roberts (1824), a series of letters on the properties of various types of shell.</p>
<h2>Atkinson’s collection</h2>
<p>While Atkinson wasn’t unusual as a woman collecting shells, the extent of her acquisitions sets them apart from many other collections of the period. She acquired as many as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/mar/12/shells-from-captain-cooks-final-voyage-saved-from-skip">1,200 shells</a> throughout her lifetime, with many sourced from far-flung regions across the globe. </p>
<p>Atkinson was from a wealthy and genteel, but not aristocratic, family, and as a result, she is not as well known as other shell collectors of the time. Nevertheless, her collection includes a number of important specimens of endangered and protected species. Many were amassed from her connection to George Dixon, an armourer on <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/chesters-roman-fort-and-museum-hadrians-wall/history/bridget-atkinsons-shells/">Captain Cook’s third and final world voyage</a>. </p>
<p>While her surviving correspondence shows her to be a less-than-perfect writer, Atikinson’s expertise in natural history led to her becoming the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk/the-northerner/2013/jan/22/heritage-heritage#:%7E:text=Bridget%20Atkinson%20was%20the%20society%27s,was%20the%20first%20woman%20elected.">first female honorary member</a> of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne in 1813. Women were still deemed ineligible for full membership until 1877.</p>
<p>Atkinson’s collection does not simply reflect the scientific interests of a curious individual. A study of their acquisition reveals a broad, even global, system at play. A number of her shells were gifted to Atkinson through the networks of the British empire.</p>
<p>Several members of Atkinson’s family were employed in imperial roles. Her son and brother-in-law were both a part of the mercantile colonising forces of the East India Company, and the latter even owned sugar plantations in Jamaica. This means the Atkinson family were direct beneficiaries of the enslavement of Black men and women in the Caribbean. </p>
<p>Atkinson used these connections to her advantage, writing to her relatives living abroad to ask for shells and even imploring family friends to do the same. In 1796, her friend Mary Yates wrote to her son John, who then lived in Virginia to pass on Atkinson’s request for <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/chesters-roman-fort-and-museum-hadrians-wall/history/bridget-atkinsons-shells/">“snail shells picked off the ground …the larger the better”</a>. </p>
<p>Conveyed through the very routes and mechanics of the British empire, Atkinson’s collections are indivisible from the wider history of colonialism. This is something that future displays of the shells will inevitably have to address.</p>
<h2>The history of Atkinson’s collection</h2>
<p>Despite their obvious significance today, Atkinson’s shells have not always been treated with reverence. The collection was passed down through various generations of the Atkinson family before eventually being acquired by Newcastle University in the 1930s (then known as King’s College). It was in this time that the shells were lost.</p>
<p>Having been discarded into a skip, an eagle-eyed marine zoologist named John Buchanan rescued them from obscurity. Going through his belongings after his death, his family discovered the collection and donated it to English Heritage. </p>
<p>This is not an unusual story. Viewed as trifling interests and trivial pursuits, a lack of interest in women’s collections of shells, both ornamental and scientific, has led to many examples being lost over the centuries. </p>
<p>The great sale of Margaret Cavendish’s collection in 1786 is a typical example. Her shells and corals from Britain, Italy and the Indian Ocean were all placed all for sale, alongside those collected for decorative purposes. Like Atkinson’s collection, <a href="https://www.paul-mellon-centre.ac.uk/publications/browse/9780300192230">Cavendish’s shells included specimens from Cook’s travels</a>. But even this important association did not save them from being scattered widely.</p>
<p>As Atkinson’s shells reveal, the collection of these beautiful natural objects crossed continents, told vivid histories of imperialism and established women’s vital role in the development of natural history as a discipline. Their <a href="https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about-us/search-news/bridget-atkinsons-shell-collection-goes-on-display-at-chesters-roman-fort-hadrians-wall/">forthcoming display</a> at Chester’s Roman Fort and Museum will ensure that they continue to tell these stories long into the future. </p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Freya Gowrley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Collecting shells was a common past time in Enlightenment Britain, when elite women were becoming increasingly interested in science.
Freya Gowrley, Lecturer in History of Art and Liberal Arts, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/218347
2023-11-27T19:17:32Z
2023-11-27T19:17:32Z
How your money is helping subsidise sexism in academia – and what you can do about it
<p>It’s frightening to imagine where the world would be right now without mRNA vaccines. The COVID-busting technology <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/mrna-vaccine-revolution-katalin-kariko/">revolutionised vaccine development</a> at an internationally critical moment – with massive implications for people’s health, wellbeing and the global economy.</p>
<p>Yet imagine we must – because some of the research most crucial to the development of mRNA vaccines almost didn’t happen.</p>
<p>Biochemist <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Katalin-Kariko">Katalin Karikó’s</a> fascination with the therapeutic potential of mRNA began in the early 1990s, but she received little encouragement. She was undervalued and underfunded throughout her university career and eventually left academia.</p>
<p>When she went on to jointly win the Nobel Prize for Medicine for her pioneering role in developing the mRNA technology that allowed the world to take on COVID, Karikó’s former employer, the University of Pennsylvania, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/10/03/researcher-demoted-by-university-of-pennsylvania-wins-nobel-prize-for-mrna-discoveries-and-some-academics-urge-penn-to-apologize/?sh=227a13cb68b1">tried to take credit</a>.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1709214249266847957"}"></div></p>
<p>Yet during her time there, the university <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/conormurray/2023/10/03/researcher-demoted-by-university-of-pennsylvania-wins-nobel-prize-for-mrna-discoveries-and-some-academics-urge-penn-to-apologize/?sh=227a13cb68b1">sidelined and demoted Karikó</a>, eventually <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=514nzDeT7WM&ab_channel=NobelPrize">pushing her out</a> altogether. While it would be nice to think of Karikó’s experience as an aberration, her experience - as we highlight in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41578-023-00624-3.epdf?sharing_token=gTOgpetseLdnjca2_9Hgk9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Os9buY1YZg369tprUI8R4tE1kHIVUshCsCo-QKEUAJYagHcGPxf5SREieGp6HtI5EFMB9XTL_gCHcjMmfBri6InvilMNKfPvtOiZntXCRh87wFh1PO_QOoKOPxvx_Jtcw%3D">our new paper</a> - is all too common for women in academia. </p>
<h2>Barriers to women’s success</h2>
<p>Academia is widely viewed as a meritocracy, a bastion of liberalism, and a place where people go to pursue a higher calling. The data, however, point to a dark side to the ivory tower.</p>
<p>For instance, a <a href="https://www.nationalacademies.org/our-work/sexual-harassment-in-academia">major report</a> published in 2019 by the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine showed rates of sexual harassment in academia are second only to those in the military.</p>
<p>More common than overtly sexualised harassment, however, is gender bias. <a href="https://www.cell.com/article/S0896-6273(21)00417-7/fulltext">Studies reveal</a> women’s research receives tougher assessment, less funding, fewer prizes, and less citation than men’s. Women professors <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10755-014-9313-4">receive lower evaluations</a> and more criticism from students – both male and female – and face higher expectations as mentors.</p>
<p>Women often face chilly academic climates, isolation, job insecurity, stalled promotions and unequal or limited access to resources. These tendencies can easily verge on incivility, ostracism, online abuse, academic sabotage and malicious allegations. And these problems are worse for women of colour, and those who belong to <a href="https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-06-women-underrepresented-groups-sexual-academic.html">sexual and gender minority</a> groups.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/death-by-a-thousand-cuts-women-of-colour-in-science-face-a-subtly-hostile-work-environment-130204">'Death by a thousand cuts': women of colour in science face a subtly hostile work environment</a>
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<p>When women are brave enough to speak out, it usually backfires. At best, they may face minimisation or silencing. More damaging is retaliation, including from institutions themselves. Women can find themselves <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00473-8">placed on probation</a>, under investigation, targeted for character assassination, facing retaliatory accusations, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01600-7#:%7E:text=08%20June%202022-,Max%20Planck%27s%20cherished%20autonomy%20questioned%20following%20criticism%20of%20misconduct%20investigations,investigations%20into%20them%20lacked%20transparency">demoted</a> or even <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-01286-5">fired</a>.</p>
<h2>Bad for science and a waste of funding</h2>
<p>A <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03251-8">massive study</a> of almost a quarter of a million US academics showed women are leaving academia at significantly higher rates than men.</p>
<p>They are also leaving for different reasons. While men are more likely to leave because they have been attracted by better opportunities, the number-one reason women cite for leaving is toxic workplaces.</p>
<p>The outcome of this gradual attrition is that women continue to be vastly underrepresented in senior academic positions: as full professors, research directors, and heads of research institutions and universities.</p>
<p><iframe id="fSdfk" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/fSdfk/1/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>The loss of so many women from research and higher education isn’t just a social or ethical issue. It’s also an economic one. Women in academia reflect investment. Their many years of post-secondary education, their training, their research – it all costs money. This money is wasted when they are pushed out of academia.</p>
<p>The worst bias and explicit harassment often comes as <a href="https://www.womenofinfluence.ca/2018/09/24/the-tallest-poppy-high-performing-women-pay-a-steep-price-for-success">women achieve greater success</a>. Rates of departure between men and women really start to widen <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03251-8">about 15 years</a> after academics finish their PhDs. </p>
<p>This means higher education and research are often losing women with the most experience and promise, and in whom the greatest funding investments have been made.</p>
<h2>Follow the money</h2>
<p>As current and former institutional heads and research leaders, we suggest it’s time to follow the money. Where does all this wasted money come from?</p>
<p>You, the taxpayer.</p>
<p>Higher education, research and science all are, in many parts of the world, funded mostly through public sources. This means when higher education and research organisations fail to tackle the persistent sexism, discrimination and harassment that are driving women out, they are throwing your money out the window.</p>
<p>Or you can think of it another way: your taxes are subsidising sexism.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-studied-309-544-patent-applications-and-found-inventing-is-still-a-mans-world-188600">We studied 309,544 patent applications – and found inventing is still a man’s world</a>
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<h2>The buck stops here</h2>
<p>The fact that tax money supports higher education and research also presents an opportunity: taxpayers can demand change in how their taxes are used.</p>
<p>They can demand efficiency in public funding – efficiency that will lead to less sexism in the institutions educating our children, and to more of the science we desperately need to address the collective challenges we face.</p>
<p>We call on governments to address sexism in higher education and research as a matter of urgency, such as by:</p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>acknowledging that self-regulation isn’t working</strong>. <br><br>Universities and research institutions have implemented gender equity initiatives and policies for decades. Yet gender biases remain entrenched.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>developing effective and transparent systems for measuring gender equity, and applying them to all publicly funded higher education and research institutions</strong>. <br><br> This means collecting and publishing data on recruitment, appointment, salaries, workload allocation, promotions, discrimination, harassment, misconduct, demotion, dismissal and departure.</p></li>
<li><p><strong>making funding in higher education and research dependent on the achievement of gender equity targets</strong>. <br><br> Institutions currently receive public funding regardless of whether they uphold a fair academic culture that provides equal opportunity for men and woman. <br><br>Disregard for rules, procedures and laws designed to achieve gender equity does not hold institutions back from receiving continued public funding. This lack of accountability helps perpetuate gender bias. It needs to change.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>You can join us in pressing for these changes by contacting your local representative, organising and submitting petitions, or reporting concerns to organisations designed to investigate possible abuses of public funding (such as federal auditing offices).</p>
<p>The story of Karikó and the transformative research that almost never was should be the wake-up call we need to demand better.</p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/in-5-years-this-australian-astrophysics-lab-reached-50-women-heres-how-they-did-it-216632">In 5 years, this Australian astrophysics lab reached 50% women. Here’s how they did it</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/218347/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susanne Täuber is affiliated with the Academic Parity Movement and the Network Against Power Abuse in Science. Both are non-profit organizations fighting harassment and power abuse in academia. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Janet G. Hering, Nicole Boivin, and Ursula Keller do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Studies reveal women’s research receives tougher assessment, less funding, fewer prizes and less citation than men’s.
Nicole Boivin, Professor, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Janet G. Hering, Director emerita, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology
Susanne Täuber, Affiliated researcher, University of Amsterdam
Ursula Keller, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/217607
2023-11-22T11:54:52Z
2023-11-22T11:54:52Z
Florence Bell died unrecognised for her contributions to DNA science – decades on female researchers are still being sidelined
<p>Almost 80 years ago, <a href="https://theconversation.com/florence-bell-the-housewife-who-played-a-key-part-in-our-understanding-of-dna-175220">Florence Bell</a> quietly laid the foundations for one of the biggest landmarks in 20th century science: the discovery of the structure of DNA. But when she died on November 23 2000, her occupation on her death certificate was recorded as “housewife”. </p>
<p>Decades later, female researchers are <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/hostile-workplace-climate-pushing-women-out-academia">still being sidelined</a>. Research has shown that deep systemic problems <a href="https://lisampmunoz.com/">block women from advancing</a> or push them out of science. But this isn’t inevitable – there are changes universities could make to level the playing field. </p>
<p>While promotion criteria differ across universities, <a href="https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-3011208/v1">credibility in academia</a> is primarily established through the number of publications a researcher has authored. This means academics are under pressure to publish as much as they can even if quality suffers. </p>
<p>Women in academia are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03075079012331377521?casa_token=nszxYzuRl64AAAAA:Haz91A2VCZoitEBHZxT2Vq_IaPA0aNse0i1zxEqVZF3rlRyidHh5WRODBnVIcnbL0dO1o600sopzLg">more likely to work part time</a>, hold teaching jobs and do extra admin tasks. This means women researchers often get less time to focus on their research, to make discoveries and publish about them. Yet it is research publications, grants and citations that are used in promotions and salary negotiations. </p>
<p>The gender disparity is apparent through <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1914221117">men’s higher publication rates</a>, and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-018-9452-8">men’s dominant representation</a> in academia research journal editorships. </p>
<h2>Why the problem isn’t going away</h2>
<p>The cycle of gender disparity in academia is complex. Larger grants often <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0155876">go to larger universities</a>, where researchers can prioritise writing and research. And where, historically, the recipients of prestigious positions and important grants have been men. </p>
<p>In some fields, for example the STEM field, women exit the workforce at <a href="https://awis.org/fighting-gender-bias/">double the rate of men</a>, often due to the biases, harassment and inequities they encounter. A woman I interviewed for <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Inspirational-Women-in-Academia-Supporting-Careers-and-Improving-Minority/Kucirkova-Fahad/p/book/9781032026459">research about the issue</a> revealed that her pregnancy was viewed negatively by her senior colleagues, which resulted in her role being replaced without maternity leave. She said she felt like she had to choose between her career and having a baby.</p>
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<img alt="Portrait of senior female professor explaining math formulas." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/560711/original/file-20231121-20-gmmq92.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The academic system still makes career progression harder for a lot of female scientists.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/portrait-senior-professor-explaining-math-formulas-1665468775">Ground Picture/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>The gender bias becomes even more pronounced for women from marginalised
backgrounds. This includes women with working class origins, those with disabilities, those from minority ethnic groups in their country of work and those for whom English is not their first language. </p>
<p>For example, in a survey of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3002184">908 environmental science researchers</a>, non-native English speakers, especially those early in their careers, said they spent more time on reading and writing papers, preparing English presentations and disseminating research in multiple languages. </p>
<p>In our book <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Inspirational-Women-in-Academia-Supporting-Careers-and-Improving-Minority/Kucirkova-Fahad/p/book/9781032026459">Inspirational Women in Academia</a>, Loleta Fahad (head of career development at University College London) and I explored how women from marginalised backgrounds bear the brunt of double disadvantages, often exacerbated by well-intentioned but poorly executed solutions implemented by the university system. </p>
<p>We found that high achieving women from underrepresented backgrounds are often
assigned mentorship and representative roles, for example. Universities typically don’t provide extra time for these mentorship roles. It is expected that these high achieving women “pay it forward” to the community they came from. A woman feels a duty to represent her group and mentor other women, but this responsibility diverts time from the very tasks that brought her recognition in the first place.</p>
<p>Consequently, burnout rates can be higher among women from marginalised
backgrounds – <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/376/bmj-2021-065984">a trend documented</a> among female medical professionals with marginalised identities.</p>
<p>Yet research suggests that the most enriching mentorships happen when people are mentored by <a href="https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=4315">someone from a different background</a> than them. For instance, a woman we <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Inspirational-Women-in-Academia-Supporting-Careers-and-Improving-Minority/Kucirkova-Fahad/p/book/9781032026459#:%7E:text=Description,age%2C%20ethnicity%2C%20and%20disability.">interviewed for our book</a>, said that her career benefited most from conversations with successful male academics, not women facing the same challenges as her. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/unravelling-dnas-structure-a-landmark-achievement-whose-authors-were-not-fairly-credited-200404">Unravelling DNA's structure: a landmark achievement whose authors were not fairly credited</a>
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<p>While the tough research environment has cultivated a resilience that enables many women to prevail against considerable challenges, their success often entails personal and professional sacrifices.</p>
<p>I achieved success early in my career partly because of the additional hours I invested. I worked twice as hard, including at night and on weekends. My story, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00241-8">featured in Nature</a>, garnered widespread attention because my account of overwork echoed the experiences of many others. </p>
<p>Indeed, the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10648-023-09727-3">most accomplished female academics</a> in psychology report working over 50 hours a week. Their routines typically involve starting the day early, working into the evening and dedicating weekends to writing. Women who want to succeed typically need to put in more effort, especially in some male-dominated fields where there is still an old boy’s club culture making it harder for women to get promoted.</p>
<p>For emerging academics in particular, there is a concerning notion that those who prioritise research above all else are the scholars who succeed, potentially at the expense of their health. Those from marginalised backgrounds run an even higher risk of burnout. </p>
<h2>There is a way forward</h2>
<p>Universities can make changes to promote equality. For example, giving equal credit and respect for teaching as they do for publications. The time spent on mentoring, contributions to public debate, or work with communities should also be considered as equal measures of success, promotion and respect for academics. Without such systemic reforms, the scientific community risks losing the diverse perspectives that female scientists bring. </p>
<p>Florence Bell wasn’t the only woman who laid the groundwork for our understanding of DNA. <a href="https://theconversation.com/unravelling-dnas-structure-a-landmark-achievement-whose-authors-were-not-fairly-credited-200404">In April 2023</a>, historic papers were discovered showing <a href="https://theconversation.com/rosalind-franklin-still-doesnt-get-the-recognition-she-deserves-for-her-dna-discovery-95536">Rosalind Franklin’s</a> contributions were more important than we realised. Imagine what other discoveries Franklin and Bell may have helped make had they been properly supported and recognised. Holding back female researchers limits our understanding of science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/217607/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Natalia Kucirkova receives funding from The Norwegian Research Council, ESRC and The Jacobs Foundation. She is affiliated with The Open University and University of Stavanger. She leads the university spin-out WiKIT.</span></em></p>
In the academic world, researchers are rewarded for publishing frequently. Not only is this affecting research quality but it is also hindering female scientists.
Natalia I. Kucirkova, Professor Reading and Early Childhood Development, The Open University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214215
2023-11-06T05:39:38Z
2023-11-06T05:39:38Z
Fieldwork can be challenging for female scientists. Here are 5 ways to make it better
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555493/original/file-20231024-23-98o1fy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=17%2C0%2C5851%2C3818&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Merla, Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women coastal scientists face multiple barriers to getting into the field for research. These include negative perceptions of their physical capabilities, not being included in trips, caring responsibilities at home and a lack of field facilities for women. Even if women clear these barriers, the experience can be challenging. </p>
<p>This is a problem because fieldwork is crucial for gathering data, inspiring emerging scientists, developing skills, expanding networks and participating in collaborative research. </p>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cft.2023.26">Our recent study</a> revisited an international survey of 314 coastal scientists that revealed broad <a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequalities-in-science-wont-self-correct-its-time-for-action-99452">perceptions and experiences of gender inequality</a> in coastal sciences. We offer five ways to improve the fieldwork experience for women. </p>
<p>Our collective experience of more than 70 years as active coastal scientists suggests women face ongoing problems when they go to the field. Against a global backdrop of the #MeToo movement, the <a href="https://www.pictureascientist.com/">Picture a Scientist</a> documentary and media coverage about <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00097-4">incidents of sexual harassment</a> in the field, conversations between fieldworkers and research managers about behaviour and policy change are needed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A collage of photos showing female fieldworkers operating equipment, carrying gear and fixing engines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=482&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/555495/original/file-20231024-21-prd8yo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=605&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Disrupting the narrative: Women fieldworkers operating equipment, carrying gear and fixing engines.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering network</span></span>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sexual-harassment-impacts-university-staff-our-research-shows-how-211996">Sexual harassment impacts university staff – our research shows how</a>
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<h2>Our research: what we did and what we found</h2>
<p>In 2016, we surveyed both male and female scientists about their experiences of gender equality in coastal sciences during an international symposium in Sydney and afterwards online.</p>
<p>From 314 responses, 113 respondents (36%) provided examples of gender inequality they had either directly experienced or observed while working in coastal sciences. About half of these were related to fieldwork.</p>
<p>Our <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/cft.2023.26">recent paper</a> in the journal Coastal Futures revisits the survey results to further unpack fieldwork issues that continue to surface among the younger generation of female coastal scientists whom we supervise in our jobs. Many of those younger women don’t know how to address these issues.</p>
<p>The paper includes direct quotes from 18 survey respondents describing their experiences. One woman, a mid-career university researcher, said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>As I fill in this survey, the corridor of the building I work in is lined with empty offices. My colleagues are out on boats doing fieldwork. I have a passion for coastal science. That’s why I’m working in a university. But I have a disproportionately large share of administrative, pastoral and governance duties that keep me from engaging in my passion. I’m about to go to a committee meeting of women, doing women’s work (reviewing teaching offerings). Inequality is alive and well in my workplace! </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Collectively, the responses highlight barriers to fieldwork participation and challenges in the field, such as sexual harassment and abuse.</p>
<h2>A pressing issue, on and off campus</h2>
<p>Universities have recently been <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/sep/14/universities-criticised-for-failed-response-after-report-details-extent-of-sexual-violence-on-campuses">criticised for failing to respond</a> to sexual violence on campus. But women employed by universities working off campus – at field sites – can be even more vulnerable. </p>
<p>The social boundaries that characterise day-to-day working life in the office and the laboratory are reconfigured on boats or in field camps. Personal space is reduced. Fieldworkers can be required to sleep in close proximity to one another, potentially putting women in vulnerable situations.</p>
<p>As this female early-career university researcher wrote:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Sometimes women are ‘advised’ to avoid fieldwork for security reasons. Or [we] are considered weak, or we are threatened by rape for being with a lot of men.</p>
</blockquote>
<p><a href="https://tos.org/oceanography/article/women-in-oceanography-continuing-challenges">Women working on boats</a> commonly face inadequate facilities at sea for toileting, menstruation and managing lactation. Some women said they were “not allowed to join research vessels” or “prevented from [joining] research in the field because of gender”. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1579235099224473600"}"></div></p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/photos-from-the-field-our-voyage-investigating-australias-submarine-landslides-and-deep-marine-canyons-184839">Photos from the field: our voyage investigating Australia's submarine landslides and deep-marine canyons</a>
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<h2>Reminded of our personal experiences</h2>
<p>Just reading the survey responses was difficult for us. Tales of exclusion and discrimination were particularly confronting because they resonated with our own personal experiences. As one of us, Sarah Hamylton, recalls:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I remember spending a hot day in my early 20s on a small boat taking measurements over a reef. I was the only female. When one of the four guys asked about needing the toilet, he was told to stand and relieve himself off the stern. I had to hold on, so I was desperate when we returned to the main ship in the afternoon. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>But that wasn’t the only challenge Hamylton encountered on that trip:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>We got back into port and the night before we departed to go home, I was woken by the drunken second officer banging on my cabin door asking for sex. The following year women were banned from attending this annual expedition because someone else had complained about sexual assault.</p>
</blockquote>
<h2>Gender stereotypes and discrimination</h2>
<p>Coastal fieldwork demands diverse physical skills such as boating, four-wheel driving, towing trailers, working with hand and power tools, moving heavy equipment, SCUBA diving and being comfortable swimming in the surf, in currents or underwater. </p>
<p>But our survey revealed roles on field trips – and therefore opportunities to learn and gain crucial field skills – are typically handed to men rather than women. Several respondents observed female students and staff being left out of field work for “not being strong enough” and “too weak to pick stuff up”. </p>
<p>Body exposure can also be an issue for women in the field. Close-fitting wetsuits and swimsuits can increase the likelihood of womens’ bodies being objectified by colleagues. Undertaking coastal fieldwork while menstruating can also be a concern.</p>
<p>Another of us, Ana Vila-Concejo, notes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Some scientific presentations show women in bikinis as a ‘beach modelling’ joke. Beyond self-consciousness, I have felt vulnerable wearing swimmers and exerting myself during fieldwork. Women students and volunteers have declined to participate in field experiments for this reason, particularly while menstruating. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>The issue of body exposure also sheds light on the interconnections between race, religion, class and sexuality, which can create overlapping and intersectional disadvantages for women. Vila-Concejo adds:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I am old enough now that I don’t care anymore. I can afford a wetsuit, but many students and volunteers don’t have one. For some women, it isn’t socially or culturally acceptable to wear swimmers, or even to do fieldwork.</p>
</blockquote>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/5S5uNqHzDRU?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Gender inequality in coastal sciences: Overcoming fieldwork challenges.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Five suggestions for improvement</h2>
<p>To improve the fieldwork experience for women in coastal sciences, our research found the following behavioural and policy changes are needed: </p>
<ol>
<li><p><strong>publicise field role models and trailblazers</strong> to reshape public views of coastal scientists, increasing the visibility of female fieldworkers</p></li>
<li><p><strong>improve opportunities and capacity for women to undertake fieldwork</strong> to diversify field teams by identifying and addressing the intersecting disadvantages experienced by women</p></li>
<li><p><strong>establish field codes of conduct</strong> that outline acceptable standards of behaviour on field trips, what constitutes misconduct, sexual harassment and assault, how to make an anonymous complaint and disciplinary measures</p></li>
<li><p><strong>acknowledge the challenges women face in the field and provide support where possible</strong> in fieldwork briefings and address practical challenges for women in remote locations, including toileting and menstruation</p></li>
<li><p><strong>foster an enjoyable and supportive fieldwork culture</strong> that emphasises mutual respect, safety, inclusivity, and collegiality on every trip. </p></li>
</ol>
<p>These five simple steps will improve the experience of fieldwork for all concerned and ultimately benefit the advancement of science.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/gender-inequalities-in-science-wont-self-correct-its-time-for-action-99452">Gender inequalities in science won't self-correct: it's time for action</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214215/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Hamylton receives funding from The Australian Research Council. She is affiliated with the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering Network. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ana Vila Concejo receives funding from the Australian Research Council and other sources unrelated to the subject of this article. She is a founding member and former co-chair of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hannah Power receives funding from the Australian Research Council, the NSW State Government State Emergency Management Program, the Queensland Resilience and Risk Reduction Fund, the New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment Endeavour Fund, and ship time from Australia's Marine National Facility. She is a member of the NSW Coastal Council and is affiliated with the Women in Coastal Geosciences and Engineering Network.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shari L Gallop works for Pattle Delamore Partners (PDP). She has an honorary lectureship with the University of Waikato. She is a founding member and former co-chair of the Women in Coastal Geoscience and Engineering Network.</span></em></p>
Growing awareness of sexual harassment and discrimination in the field prompted an international survey and research into potential solutions.
Sarah Hamylton, Associate professor, University of Wollongong
Ana Vila Concejo, Associate professor, University of Sydney
Hannah Power, Associate Professor in Coastal and Marine Science, University of Newcastle
Shari L Gallop, Service Leader - Coastal, University of Waikato
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214050
2023-10-08T17:14:29Z
2023-10-08T17:14:29Z
Why do so few women take on scientific careers?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/549417/original/file-20230608-25-g76o5p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C0%2C4127%2C2373&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women are still in the minority in the laboratories.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/9dxalrR0xFI">National Cancer Institute/Unsplash</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>There were around 8 billion human beings in 2022, 50% of them women. Although there are as many women as men, the former continue to be underrepresented in science.</p>
<p>The list of Nobel Prize laureates is a case in point: out of 965 winners, <a href="https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Place_des_femmes_dans_l%27attribution_du_prix_Nobel">only 64 (7%) are women</a>. Could the differences between men and women justify such a disparity?</p>
<h2>Natural differences?</h2>
<p>The first difference between the sexes can be observed at the level of chromosomes. Human beings are endowed with 23 pairs of chromosomes, the last pair differing according to sex: two X chromosomes for women, and one X and one Y chromosome for men. This difference accounts for the difference in genitalia, which are distinguishable from birth in over 99% of cases.</p>
<p>Gender, a social norm that defines how we should behave according to our sex, comes on top of these biological differences. Throughout history, gender expectations over how we ought to speak, sit, walk and dance have varied not only across time, but space: in 17th-century France, wealthy men wore shoes with heels, reflecting their high social status. Nowadays in Europe, with the notable exception of the Scots, few men wear skirts. In Asia, however, skirts are widely worn by men. Such variations show that when it comes to expressing gender identity, a person’s sex counts less than their social and cultural context.</p>
<p>Gender is also defined by stereotypes on skills, which as we shall see largely explain why women are so little present in science.</p>
<p>We know that, from the earliest age, boys’ and girls’ environments differ according to these stereotypes. And yet, by the time they enter first grade in France, <a href="https://www.education.gouv.fr/filles-et-garcons-sur-le-chemin-de-l-egalite-de-l-ecole-l-enseignement-superieur-edition-2021-322668">girls outperform boys</a> in French and are on a part with them in maths. Once in academia, however, only 22% of mathematicians are <a href="https://femmes-et-maths.fr/enseignement-superieur-et-recherche/statistiques/effectifs-a-luniversite/">women</a>.</p>
<p>What has happened in the meantime? Phenomena that affect not only the women on the receiving end, but also teachers, recruiters and parents – namely, stereotypes and gender bias.</p>
<h2>The power of stereotypes</h2>
<p>Stereotypes are character traits that are arbitrarily attributed to specific groups of people. Although they have no scientific basis, they nevertheless influence the way people behave.</p>
<p>Girls, for example, quickly take to the idea that they are not cut out for maths. Such gendered stereotypes are hardly new. During the Renaissance, a dark period for equality between men and women, women were excluded from the cultural, economic and political spheres. Then, during the Enlightenment in France, feminine names that existed for intellectual and artistic professions (author, painter, poet, doctor, etc.) <a href="https://editions-iconoclaste.fr/livres/les-grandes-oubliees/">were suppressed</a> by the Académie Française, legitimising the absence of women in these professions.</p>
<p>Research in the 21st century has continued to starkly expose such preconditioning. In 2009, researchers at the University of Aix-Marseille sought to test the <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S002210310900105X">mathematical skills of 12-year-old children</a> of both sexes, divided into two groups. In the first group, the children were told they were taking a geometry test. In the other, they were told they were taking a drawing test. The boys ended up outperforming the girls in the “geometry test” group, while girls not only beat them in the “drawing test”, but outscored the boys from the first group. Although the test was the same, the girls performed less well when told they were taking a geometry test. So, it is the mention of geometry that is an obstacle, not differences in ability, since in the “drawing test” instruction, they are better than the boys.</p>
<p>This is the stereotype effect: we observe a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1997-04591-001">drop in performance</a> in situations where individuals fear confirming a negative stereotype attributed to the group to which they belong. This is known as stereotype threat. While the stereotype itself has no biological basis (at the cerebral level, <a href="https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/prof-daphna-joel/gender-mosaic/9781913068011/">the brains of two men have just as many differences as those of a man and a woman</a>), it induces behaviour in those who are its target that conforms to it: women will be less self-confident, and feel less legitimate in disciplines from which stereotypes exclude them, such as maths, and science in general.</p>
<p>Stereotypes will also induce biases in those who teach, judge, evaluate and recruit. <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1211286109">One study</a> has shown that, for the same CV sent for a position of a laboratory manager in a university, a male candidate (boy’s first name) will be judged more competent than a female candidate (girl’s first name), and will be offered a higher salary. This is what we call gender bias: we treat people differently, not because of their skills or qualities, but because of their gender.</p>
<h2>The exclusion of women from scientific careers and its mechanisms</h2>
<p>Gender inequality, which is evident at the outset of scientific studies, is amplified throughout a career. Although their numbers are on the <a href="https://www.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/sites/default/files/content_migration/document/Note_DGRH_N_4_Avril_2021_La_situation_des_femmes_universitaires_dans_l_enseignement_superieur_en_2020_1405949.pdf">increase, women are still in the minority among teaching and research staff</a> in all disciplines (40% in 2021 in France), but more pronounced in the sciences (at the same date, 34% of female lecturers and 19% of female professors in science and technology). This erosion is described and analysed in the documentary <a href="https://www.pictureascientist.com/"><em>Picture a Scientist</em></a>.</p>
<p>Because women are endowed with the same abilities as men, could it be that they have less of an appetite for the sciences?</p>
<p>It is significant to note the wide variations from one country to another in the proportion of women in scientific courses. Paradoxically, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/pourquoi-legalite-entre-les-sexes-nefface-t-elle-pas-les-segregations-dans-les-filieres-scientifiques-152272">more egalitarian the country, the more women are excluded</a>. Indeed, women who manage to study in countries where they have to fight to gain access have already made a transgressive choice, so their disciplinary orientation is freer. We can see that these variations are explained by context and, as mentioned above, not by natural gender differences. In countries where women’s access to education is not in question, stereotypes play a role in the choice of disciplines. It also has an overall impact on test results, according to the mechanism known as stereotype threat described above.</p>
<p>As a result, the percentage of women in France’s top scientific schools is very low, particularly at ENS-PSL (École normale supérieure), as described in the study: <a href="https://presses.ens.psl.eu/464-cepremap-filles-sciences-une-equation-insoluble.html">“Girls + Sciences = an Unsolvable Equation?”</a>. We were particularly struck to find how commonplace gendered appreciation was in teachers’ school reports. Specific teacher training is therefore desirable to limit these biases.</p>
<p>This phenomenon is not limited to studies. The <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-019-0686-3">behaviour of promotion juries</a> at the Centre for National Scientific Research (CNRS) has been analysed by Isabelle Régner: it is not the implicit bias that is responsible for inequality in terms of women’s promotion, but its non-recognition by the jury.</p>
<h2>Why act and how?</h2>
<p>We need to work toward greater individual and social equity, which will in turn lead to greater efficiency. In academic research, but also in industry and education, <a href="https://online.uncp.edu/articles/mba/diversity-and-inclusion-good-for-business.aspx">several studies</a> have shown that mixed groups (gender, social origin…) perform better.</p>
<p>We need to capitalise on this observation on a global scale. Given the scientific challenges we face, we must not lose 50% of our brainpower.</p>
<p>We therefore need to inform and convince people of the deleterious effects of gender bias, which is more widespread than is generally believed. With <a href="https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/">Association Implicit Test</a>, the strength of this bias can be measured in the difficulty, via slowness, of associating the words <em>man</em> with <em>literature</em>, or <em>woman</em> with <em>science</em>.</p>
<p>A perverse effect should also be mentioned: while representation on university bodies is parity, which is desirable, there are also burn-out effects on women’s careers. Indeed, since the pool of female professors remains unequal, particularly in the higher positions (full professor, called “A rank” in France), women find themselves individually over-solicited for collective tasks that are not particularly rewarding in terms of their careers. The result is ultimately, and paradoxically, contrary to the objective of equity.</p>
<p>Instead, we should be looking at the foundations – that is to say, the conditions of access to university and research careers. Incentive measures could be envisaged to encourage laboratories to recruit young women by helping them at the start of their careers: welcome funding in addition to that already in place, award of a thesis grant within two years of taking up the position… Measures also justified by inequalities in terms of biological clocks. And above all, in order to objectify these issues of gender bias, we need to collect gendered data on careers and working conditions: Nancy Hopkins in the documentary <em>Picture a Scientist</em> shows that, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), laboratory space allocated to female professors was significantly smaller than that allocated to male professors. And, as Jane Willenbring says in the same documentary, it is important to make scientific universities a welcoming place for women.</p>
<p>In short, even if changes are moving in the right direction, they are still very slow. Should we carry on at the current pace, a <a href="https://cache.media.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/file/Charte_egalite_femmes_hommes/90/6/Chiffres_parite_couv_vdef_239906.pdf">recent study</a> by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research estimates that gender equality within the field of higher education and research won’t happen before 2068, despite being enshrined in law. Action is thus urgently needed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214050/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Les auteurs ne travaillent pas, ne conseillent pas, ne possèdent pas de parts, ne reçoivent pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'ont déclaré aucune autre affiliation que leur organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>
From primary school to academic positions, despite some progress, gender inequality continues to be rife.
Clotilde Policar, Professeure, directrice des études sciences à l'ENS, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSL
Charlotte Jacquemot, Chercheuse en sciences cognitives, directrice du département d'études cognitives à l'Ecole normale supérieure, École normale supérieure (ENS) – PSL
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/207697
2023-07-12T12:39:07Z
2023-07-12T12:39:07Z
Female physicists aren’t represented in the media – and this lack of representation hurts the physics field
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536097/original/file-20230706-21-hnz1eu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4199%2C2690&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lise Meitner, in the front row, sits alongside many male colleagues at the Seventh Solvay Physics Conference in 1933. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/615305140/photo/participants-at-the-seventh-solvay-physics-conference-at-brussels-belgium-line-up-for-a-photo.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=7Dff1kI7GzHBNfEpiP6BXnoiWle7W-IgooUlgAH39z4=">Corbin Historical via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christopher Nolan’s highly-anticipated movie “<a href="https://www.oppenheimermovie.com/">Oppenheimer</a>,” set for release July 21, 2023, depicts <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/J-Robert-Oppenheimer">J. Robert Oppenheimer</a> and his role in the development of the atomic bomb. But while the Manhattan Project wouldn’t have been possible without the work of many accomplished female scientists, the only women seen in the movie’s trailer are either hanging laundry, crying or cheering the men on.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/uYPbbksJxIg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The only women featured in the official trailer for Christopher Nolan’s ‘Oppenheimer’ are crying, hanging laundry or supporting the men.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As a <a href="https://www.physicsandastronomy.pitt.edu/people/chandralekha-singh">physics professor</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=y820d7MAAAAJ&hl=en">studies ways to support women in STEM – science, technology, engineering and math – fields</a> and a <a href="https://www.filmandmedia.pitt.edu/people/carl-kurlander">film studies professor</a> who worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood, we believe the trailer’s depiction of women reinforces stereotypes about who can succeed in science. It also represents a larger trend of women’s contributions in science going unrecognized in modern media.</p>
<h2>Lise Meitner: A pioneering role model in physics</h2>
<p>The Manhattan Project would not have been possible without the work of <a href="https://theconversation.com/lise-meitner-the-forgotten-woman-of-nuclear-physics-who-deserved-a-nobel-prize-106220">physicist Lise Meitner</a>, who <a href="https://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200712/physicshistory.cfm">discovered nuclear fission</a>. Meitner used <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/E-mc2-equation">Einstein’s E=MC²</a> to calculate how much energy would be released by splitting uranium atoms, and it was that development that would prompt Einstein to sign a letter urging President Franklin Roosevelt to begin the United States’ atomic research program. </p>
<p>Einstein called Meitner the “<a href="https://www.dpma.de/english/our_office/publications/ingeniouswomen/lisemeitner/index.html#:%7E:text=nominated%2048%20times%20for%20the,Max%20Born%20and%20many%20others.">Madame Curie of Germany</a>” and was one of a pantheon of physicists, from Max Planck to Niels Bohr, who nominated Meitner for a Nobel Prize 48 times during her lifetime.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A young woman with her hands clasped together standing in front of a large plant and wearing a skirt, blouse and hat." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=936&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1177&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1177&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536071/original/file-20230706-20-eet6hq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1177&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lise Meitner, the accomplished physicist who discovered nuclear fission.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lise_Meitner12.jpg">MaterialScientist/Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Meitner never won. Instead, the prize for fission <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1944/summary/">went to Otto Hahn</a>, her male lab partner of 30 years in Berlin. Hahn received the news of his nomination under house arrest in England, where he and other German scientists were being held to determine how far the Third Reich had advanced with its atomic program. </p>
<p>Of Jewish descent, Meitner had been forced to flee the Nazis in 1938 and refused to use this scientific discovery to develop a bomb. Rather, she <a href="http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/articles/gold_meitn.html">spent the rest of her life</a> working to promote nuclear disarmament and advocating for the responsible use of nuclear energy.</p>
<p>Meitner was not the only woman who made a significant contribution during this time. But the lack of physics role models like Meitner in popular media leads to real-life consequences. Meitner <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt15398776/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_3_nm_5_q_oppen">doesn’t appear as a character in the film</a>, as she was not part of the Manhattan Project, but we hope the script alludes to her groundbreaking work. </p>
<h2>A lack of representation</h2>
<p>Only around <a href="https://www.aip.org/statistics/women">20% of the undergraduate majors and Ph.D. students</a> in physics are women. The <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020119">societal stereotypes and biases</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261375">expectation of brilliance</a>, <a href="https://www.aps.org/programs/education/su4w/index.cfm">lack of role models</a> and <a href="https://www.per-central.org/items/detail.cfm?ID=15784">chilly culture of physics</a> discourage many talented students from historically marginalized backgrounds, like women, from pursuing physics and related disciplines. </p>
<p>Societal stereotypes and biases influence students even before they enter the classroom. One common stereotype is the idea that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1261375">genius and brilliance</a> are important factors to succeed in physics. However, genius is <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/where-are-all-the-female-geniuses/">often associated with boys</a>, and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-emphasis-on-brilliance-creates-a-toxic-dog-eat-dog-workplace-atmosphere-that-discourages-women-178525">girls from a young age tend to shy away from</a> <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah6524">fields associated with innate brilliance</a>. </p>
<p>Studies have found that by the age of 6, girls are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah6524">less likely than boys</a> to believe they are “really, really smart.” As these students get older, often the norms in science classes and curricula tend <a href="https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831216678379">not to represent the interests and values of girls</a>. All of these stereotypes and factors can influence women’s perception of their ability to do physics.</p>
<p>Research shows that at the end of a yearlong college physics course sequence, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.14.020123">women with an “A” have the same physics self-efficacy as men with a “C”</a>. A person’s physics self-efficacy is their belief about how good they are at solving physics problems – and one’s self-efficacy can shape their career trajectory. </p>
<p>Women drop out of college science and engineering majors with <a href="https://www.nsta.org/journal-college-science-teaching/journal-college-science-teaching-januaryfebruary-2022/gender">significantly higher grade-point averages</a> than men who drop out. In some cases, women who drop out have the same GPA as men who complete those majors. Compared to men, women in physics courses feel <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020148">significantly less recognized</a> for their accomplishments. Recognition from others as a person who can excel in physics is the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020148">strongest predictor of a student’s physics identity</a>, or whether they see themselves as someone who can excel in physics. </p>
<p>More frequent media recognition of female scientists, such as Meitner, could vicariously influence young women, who may see them as role models. This recognition alone can boost young women’s physics self-efficacy and identity.</p>
<p>When Meitner started her career at the beginning of the 20th century, male physicists made excuses about why women had no place in a lab – their <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/oct/23/sue-arnold-science-audiobooks-review">long hair might catch fire</a> on Bunsen burners, for instance. We like to believe we have made progress in the past century, but the underrepresentation of women in physics is still concerning. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three students (two women and one man) watch a woman professor write equations on a whiteboard." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536138/original/file-20230706-21-7m0oyq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A number of barriers keep young women out of the physics field, but having role models to look up to can lead them toward success.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://media.gettyimages.com/id/643999287/photo/professor-talking-to-students-in-college-classroom.jpg?s=612x612&w=0&k=20&c=hD3t9QFlVw5otISs1svH3wCCFJ9cXDR84xoqIJcja-4=">Hill Street Studios/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Diversity as an asset to science</h2>
<p>If diverse groups of scientists are involved in brainstorming challenging problems, not only can they <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691138541/the-difference">devise better, future-oriented solutions</a>, but those solutions will also benefit a wider range of people. </p>
<p>Individuals’ lived experiences affect their perspectives – for example, over two centuries ago, mathematician <a href="https://doi.org/10.1109/MAHC.2003.1253887">Ada Lovelace imagined applications</a> far beyond what the original inventors of the computer intended. Similarly, women today are more likely to focus on applications of quantum computers <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-quantum-computer-revolution-must-include-women/">that will benefit their communities</a>. Additionally, <a href="https://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/williamkamkwamba/book.html">physicists from Global South countries</a> are more likely to develop improved stoves, solar cells, water purification systems or solar-powered lamps. The perspectives that diverse groups bring to science problems can lead to new innovations. </p>
<p>Our intention is not to disparage the “Oppenheimer” movie, but to point out that by not centering media attention on diverse voices – including those of women in physics like Meitner – filmmakers perpetuate the status quo and stereotypes about who belongs in physics. Additionally, young women <a href="https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.6.3.20190513a">continue to be deprived</a> of exposure to role models who could inspire their academic and professional journeys</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/207697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The trailer for ‘Oppenheimer’ fails to include female physicists, which is indicative of a broader media trend that, if reversed, could lead to greater gender diversity in science.
Carl Kurlander, Senior Lecturer, Film and Media Studies, University of Pittsburgh
Chandralekha Singh, Distinguished Professor of Physics, University of Pittsburgh
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200552
2023-04-06T06:16:02Z
2023-04-06T06:16:02Z
Since the late 19th century, adventurous female ‘eclipse chasers’ have contributed to science in Australia
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/519222/original/file-20230404-18-nwlh6e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=135%2C0%2C708%2C378&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Elizabeth Campbell operating the Floyd Telescope, 1922 total solar eclipse. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library Western Australia 4131B/3/8, enhanced detail</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A total solar eclipse is a remarkable alignment of our Sun, Earth and the Moon, as the latter casts a perfect shadow across the former.</p>
<p>If you’re in the narrow path of the shadow of the Moon, at the moment of totality you are plunged into darkness. Stars and planets emerge in the sky, and the entire atmosphere changes. This immersion in a total solar eclipse is unforgettable. </p>
<p>As 21-year-old Australian Miriam Chisholm <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1924MmBAA..24...94C">reported in 1922</a>,</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I looked up from the telescope just an instant before totality and thought I saw the Corona, a pale fringe around the Sun […] and then the light went out and we saw it in all its glory.</p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A photograph of the black totally eclipsed sun in the centre with a white haze of corona around it. The image was encapsulated in a glass plate slide to project for teaching at Sydney Observatory." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516169/original/file-20230319-16-7iduc5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photograph of the solar corona taken using the Floyd Camera by Elizabeth Campbell, 21 September 1922. The image was later used for teaching at Sydney Observatory. Collection Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Historically, total solar eclipses were a unique opportunity to conduct scientific research about our Sun, the closest star. Using special instruments called spectroscopes, it was possible to decipher the chemical composition of the gases emitted by the Sun – but only during a total eclipse. </p>
<p>As I write in my recently co-authored book <a href="https://ebooks.publish.csiro.au/content/eclipse-chasers#tab-info">Eclipse Chasers</a>, perhaps the best-known eclipse experiment was the proof of Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity. In the early 20th century this theory could only be tested during the minutes of totality, requiring a clear sky around the covered Sun so you could photograph the stars. </p>
<h2>Women in the field</h2>
<p>Accounts of well-known historic discoveries in astronomy might leave the impression this work was only undertaken by men. But in the late 19th and early 20th century, women in Australia already participated in astronomy as <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/publications-of-the-astronomical-society-of-australia/article/making-visible-the-first-women-in-astronomy-in-australia-the-measurers-and-computers-employed-for-the-astrographic-catalogue/AD35E9CECEBC784E926D7B8F35E3D4E0">female “computers”</a> and amateur astronomers. They were deeply involved in scientific expeditions to view total solar eclipses, but it was not easy. </p>
<p>The living conditions were rough, in tents with poor amenities open to the weather, and little or no privacy. The months needed to travel on solar eclipse expeditions meant leaving family responsibilities, one of the reasons it was unusual to find women in the field. When women did participate, they were usually the wives and daughters of male astronomers. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A young woman in a mortar board hat and gown." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1033&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1298&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1298&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516151/original/file-20230318-4441-paqzir.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1298&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Annie Louisa Virginia Dodwell (1870-1924) graduated with a Bachelor of Science from the University of Adelaide. Collection University of Adelaide. This image was taken with a group of other graduands around 1905. Enhanced.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The first Australian woman whose total solar eclipse observations were officially reported was Annie Louisa Virginia Dodwell. She had a Bachelor of Science from the University of Adelaide and gained astronomy knowledge working with her husband George Dodwell, the South Australian Government Astronomer.</p>
<p>Together, they organised the Adelaide Observatory expedition to Bruny Island in Tasmania for the 1910 total solar eclipse. The party arrived by ship and for a month they camped in tents in almost constant rain to prepare. The eclipse day was clouded, nonetheless Annie successfully recorded the change in temperature, the only science of value that was achieved. </p>
<p>In the following years she presented <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4558317">talks about astronomy</a>, published poems and participated in the <a href="https://www.iau.org/science/meetings/past/general_assemblies/87/">inaugural International Astronomical Union assembly</a> at the Vatican Observatory in 1922. She arranged the logistics for her husband’s total solar eclipse expedition later that year, during which she <a href="http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-page4558314">transcribed his observations</a> to the newspapers.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/a-century-ago-australia-was-ground-zero-for-eclipse-watchers-and-helped-prove-einstein-right-172605">A century ago, Australia was ground zero for eclipse-watchers – and helped prove Einstein right</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Seasoned eclipse chasers in the 1920s</h2>
<p>In 1922 an international team of astronomers, led by William Campbell, Director of Lick Observatory, and assisted by the Australian Navy, travelled to a remote location in Western Australia to confirm Einstein’s general theory of relativity during the September 21 total solar eclipse.</p>
<p>There were five women participating in this expedition: Elizabeth Campbell, Jean Chant with her daughter Elizabeth, Eleanor Adams and Mary Acworth Evershed. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Four women in 1922 aboard a ship." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=292&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516172/original/file-20230319-5719-57kj8m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=366&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Four of the women who participated in the total solar eclipse expedition led by Lick Observatory to Wallal Downs on their way from Broome to Ninety Mile Beach, Western Australia, 1922. Left to right: Elizabeth Chant (1899-1982), Jean Chant (1870-1940), Mary Acworth Evershed (1867-1949), Elizabeth Ballard Campbell (1869-1961). Collection State Library Western Australia, 4131B/1/24. Colourised.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">State Library Western Australia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While they were the wives and daughter of respective male astronomers, each woman was a seasoned eclipse observer in her own right. They knew how to operate and use technical equipment and contributed substantially to reporting the scientific work.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Campbell organised the supplies and operated spectroscopic and photographic telescope equipment during the eclipse. Eleanor Adams worked with her husband on the large 12-metre eclipse camera. Jean Chant observed the shadow bands and changing brightness of the sky, and Elizabeth Chant operated a prism that polarised light.</p>
<p>Mary Acworth Evershed was an established expert in solar physics and worked alongside her husband, director of the Kodaikanal solar observatory in India. She photographed the spectra of the Sun’s corona. In 1896, on return to England, she published a pocket-sized Easy Guide to the Southern Stars with star maps of the constellations visible from the southern hemisphere. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A man and a woman in tent adjusting a piece of equipment that has a circular mirror and pivots on one axis." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/517483/original/file-20230326-1899-vtbhf0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mary Acworth and John Evershed adjusting a problematic instrument called a coelestat used to track the Sun. Lick Observatory Photographs. Special Collections and Archives, University Library, UC Santa Cruz. Photograph: Ernest Brandon-Cremer.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A long drive across the country</h2>
<p>On the other side of the continent, a very different eclipse expedition was organised by 21-year-old Miriam Chisholm with her school friend Frida Tindal. Chisholm’s father, Frank, drove them over 950 kilometres from Goulburn to southern Queensland.</p>
<p>They lost four days when their car was bogged in mud and almost didn’t make it to the line of totality. Thankfully, due to excellent time-keeping and navigation they had a successful eclipse. They drew the Sun’s corona, measured the temperature, observed how animals and birds became quiet and timed the shadow bands. <a href="http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/pdf/1924MmBAA..24...94C">Their report</a> is descriptive, inspiring and filled with detailed observations. It is still a useful guide on how to make the most of a total solar eclipse experience.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Father and daughter stand in front of a car in 1922. He is drinking from a cup. A telescope is strapped to the side of the car." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=405&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/516147/original/file-20230318-3576-mt1qvg.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=509&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Miriam and Frank Chisholm with their eclipse-chasing car. You can see her telescope strapped to the side of the car. Courtesy History Goulburn. Photograph: Miriam Chisholm, self-timer. Colourised image.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">History Goulburn</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>On April 20 2023 a total solar eclipse will be visible from Exmouth in Western Australia. This is the first total solar eclipse in Australia since 2012, when thousands of people flocked to northern Queensland. I was there, and for two minutes and five seconds of totality, I experienced a beautiful “diamond ring” effect as the Moon totally covered the Sun, revealing its misty corona. </p>
<p>There are four more total solar eclipses in the next 17 years. Following in the footsteps of early 20th century eclipse chasers, large numbers of Australians will soon be able to share a total solar eclipse experience they will treasure, record and retell throughout their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200552/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Toner Stevenson is affiliated with the University of Sydney, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, School of Humanities.
She is currently Vice President of Sydney City Skywatchers, an amateur astronomy society, not-for-profit, and in voluntary capacity. The society was previously called the British Astronomical Association, NSW Branch. This society will be mentioned in the article. She is on the Board of the Australian National Committee of the International Council of Museums, voluntary role.
She is a co-author of the recently published 'Eclipse Chasers' book, the research for which informed this article.
</span></em></p>
History might give you the impression astronomical discoveries were only done by men. But women were participating in scientific expeditions of eclipses too, even though it wasn’t easy.
Toner Stevenson, Honorary history affiliate in the School of Humanities, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197645
2023-03-01T12:31:37Z
2023-03-01T12:31:37Z
How amateur scientists are still helping make important discoveries
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/509223/original/file-20230209-20-6ispxh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C44%2C5935%2C3900&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.pexels.com/photo/students-inside-a-classroom-8471859/">pexels/ mart production</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>What images does science conjure up in your mind?</p>
<p>You may well be visualising a laboratory, equations scrawled on a blackboard. Figures are surrounded by glassware filled with coloured liquids. Maybe someone, with a slightly furrowed brow, is hunched over a microscope. </p>
<p>But what this scene fails to convey is that science isn’t about labs, equipment or highly trained professionals. It’s not even the body of knowledge locked away in great minds or archived within text books and journals. </p>
<p>Instead, it’s about having a curious, creative, critical and evidence-based mindset. Which means anyone who uses the scientific method can and should consider themselves a scientist. Indeed, many a discovery has been made by amateur scientists. </p>
<p>They’re still helping to shape science. In January 2023, a new study <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/cambridge-archaeological-journal/article/an-upper-palaeolithic-protowriting-system-and-phenological-calendar/6F2AD8A705888F2226FE857840B4FE19">confirmed the theory</a> of amateur archaeologist Ben Bacon who concluded 20,000-year-old cave markings were a lunar calendar. He spent hours decoding the primitive writing system, which may pre-date equivalent record-keeping systems by at least 10,000 years, before he approached a team of academics. </p>
<h2>Out of this world</h2>
<p>Astronomy has a long history of encouraging input from nonprofessional scientists. Brother and sister team <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/27859053?seq=2">William and Caroline Herschel</a> are among the most well known. Originally from Hanover, German, and trained as musicians, the siblings moved to England and eventually lived in Bath. During the 1770s William worked as a choirmaster while his sister kept his house. </p>
<p>After a day’s work William would spend late nights voraciously reading up on astronomy. Breakfast conversations with his sister soon infected her with his passion. Together, the Herschels taught themselves to make their own telescopes. </p>
<p>Before long their prowess as telescope makers eclipsed their musical reputations. Eventually, the <a href="https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/astronomer-royal">astronomer royal</a>, who advised the king on astronomical matters, deemed their telescopes superior to those at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. </p>
<p>The siblings went on to make major discoveries, using their telescopes. In 1781, William was the first to spot Uranus, followed by several galaxies. Meanwhile, Caroline found eight comets, a dwarf galaxy and 14 nebulae (<a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/nebula">giant clouds of dust and gas in space</a>).</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=870&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508089/original/file-20230203-18-y6t4fi.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1094&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sir William Herschel and Caroline Herschel ca. 1896.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/dmbmc538">Alfred Richard Diethe/Wellcome collection gallery</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In the intervening 250 years, others followed the trail blazed by the Herschels. With no formal education <a href="https://earthsky.org/space/clyde-tombaugh-discovered-pluto-on-february-18-1930/">Clyde Tombaugh</a> taught himself to make telescopes. His creations landed him a job at Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he discovered Pluto in 1929. <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/02/20/thomas-bopp-comet-hunter-obituary/">Thomas Bopp</a> noticed a smudge when he peered down a friend’s scope, which was later named <a href="https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/asteroids-comets-and-meteors/comets/c-1995-o1-hale-bopp/in-depth/">Comet Hale-Bopp</a>. </p>
<p>On the very same night, (July 22 1995) unemployed physicist <a href="https://wiki.alquds.edu/?query=Alan_Hale_(astronomer)">Alan Hale</a> spotted the comet, so he shared the glory. Since then the number of discoveries, largely of planets outside of our solar system <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/22/world/exoplanets-nasa-citizen-science-scn/index.html">(exoplanets), by backyard astronomers</a> have rocketed due to <a href="https://exoplanets.nasa.gov/citizen-science/">citizen science projects</a> and the thousands of data sets made <a href="https://data.nasa.gov">publicly available by space agencies</a>. </p>
<h2>Down to Earth</h2>
<p>Back down on the ground there is still plenty for the amateur to explore. <a href="https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/mary-anning-unsung-hero.html">Mary Anning</a> is one of the most notable amateur Earth scientists. </p>
<p>In the early 19th century, she unearthed fabulous fossils on the beaches of Lyme Regis, Dorset. Despite her limited education, she devoured as much of the scientific literature as she could get her hands on and produced detailed technical drawings to record her finds. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the influential Geological Society of London did not allow female members. So Anning was forced to sell her finds to “gentlemen” geologists who passed her work off as their own.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Sketch of dinosaur" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=926&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508091/original/file-20230203-7171-cr3hk2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1164&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Autograph letter concerning the discovery of plesiosaurus, from Mary Anning.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/cezbevj4">Wellcome collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finding traces of a long dead creature gives people a taste of the thrill that any scientist feels when their data reveals something new. Since Anning trod the beaches of the Jurassic coast many an amateur palaeontologist has followed in her path. </p>
<p>A wonderful example is <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/giant-dinosaur-footprint-the-largest-ever-found-in-yorkshire-say-experts-12812147">fossil hunters Marie Woods and Rob Taylor</a> who spotted a metre-long dinosaur footprint – the largest ever discovered – in 2021 on the Yorkshire coast. </p>
<p>It’s not just the ground under our feet that has proved fruitful for budding Earth scientists. Our atmosphere is also a fertile area of research. Today, cheap air sensors, microprocessors and mobile phone networks allow anyone to use atmospheric <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07106-5">monitors</a> that feed into public access databanks, which are used for climate and pollution models. </p>
<p>But the first and most influential amateur climatologist was probably <a href="https://www.wired.com/story/meet-the-amateur-scientist-who-discovered-climate-change/">Guy Callendar</a>, a steam engineer by profession. </p>
<p>From the 1930s and throughout the mid 20th century, he published papers describing models of how carbon dioxide was affecting and would affect our climate. At the time his work was met with major scepticism, largely because he didn’t have scientific qualifications and because CO₂ constitutes a fraction of our atmosphere: just 0.04%, up from 0.03% in the pre-industrial era. </p>
<p>So the climatologists of the time struggled to grasp how these tiny changes could drive the dramatic effects Callendar predicted. Nevertheless, his perseverance and robust analysis of the data eventually persuaded others to take the threat of CO₂ seriously. </p>
<p>Amateur scientists thrive where data, observations and objects can be collected without technical and expensive equipment. That’s partly why historically there were so many amateur palaeontologists and astronomers. </p>
<p>Today, there is no shortage of open-source data and cheap analytical equipment. The result is hundreds of projects that interested <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects">citizen scientists</a> can get involved with, from <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/penguintom79/penguin-watch">surveying penguins in the Antarctic</a> to <a href="https://www.zooniverse.org/projects/marek-slipski/cloudspotting-on-mars">cloud spotting on Mars</a>.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aOYrVM5bTno?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Flat-Earther proves himself wrong.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Of course, access to equipment, data and even the ability to design an experiment does not a scientist make. You also need an open mind. Physicist and writer of the popular 1980s TV series Cosmos, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/space/who-was-carl-sagan">Carl Sagan</a>, once said:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In science it often happens that scientists say, “You know that’s a really good argument; my position is mistaken,” and then they would actually change their minds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>This attitude is central to any scientist’s mindset. It’s what distinguishes science from pseudoscience. A distinction beautifully made by an experiment, shown in the Netflix documentary, <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/reddit-video-flat-earth-conspiracy-b2007316.html">Beyond the Curve</a>. </p>
<p>The show finishes with a elegant experiment designed by a flat-Earther to prove his point of view. When the inevitable results came in he adopts that furrowed brow and just repeats “interesting”. </p>
<p>The documentary credits roll there, so we don’t get to see his thoughts play out. But if his next words were “I guess I was wrong”, then he gets to call himself a scientist.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197645/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mark Lorch does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Mary Anning, Thomas Bopp and Ben Bacon are just a few of the nonprofessionals who pushed the frontiers of science.
Mark Lorch, Professor of Science Communication and Chemistry, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198407
2023-02-08T19:09:45Z
2023-02-08T19:09:45Z
Prejudice, poor pay and the ‘urinary leash’: naming and claiming Australia’s forgotten women scientists
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508278/original/file-20230206-21-txnpsu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=40%2C5%2C1815%2C1260&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Bachelor of Science graduates at Adelaide University in 1890.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of University of Adelaide Library, University Archives</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jane Carey’s new book Taking to the Field explores a paradox: women have been excluded from Australian science for many social and political reasons, but were also present and active within it from its earliest days. It’s a story of extraordinary achievements as well as struggles to gain recognition and fair treatment.</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Review: Taking to the Field: a History of Australian Women in Science - Jane Carey (Monash University Publishing)</em></p>
<hr>
<p>An array of fascinating and talented characters populates the book. One of the most controversial is <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/king-georgina-13025">Georgina King</a> (1845-1932). Among her many other investigations, she questioned the accepted wisdom that human evolution was driven by men. In 1902, she <a href="https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-525953704/view?sectionId=nla.obj-532274555&partId=nla.obj-525988602#page/n12/mode/1up">retold the narrative</a> with women at the centre, arguing they were first to walk upright and develop language. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=819&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508230/original/file-20230206-13-p7kjbu.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1029&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Georgina King, circa 1910.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was a powerful challenge to the prevailing idea that women “were inferior because they were less evolved”. Her vision was before its time: it wasn’t until the 1990s that feminist archaeologists and other scholars took up the baton to argue for women as equal creators of human culture.</p>
<p>King’s work was plagiarised, and she was not fairly credited for what she had achieved. The more she objected, the more she was painted as unhinged and mad. It’s a familiar story even today.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-still-find-it-tough-to-reach-the-top-in-science-38776">Women still find it tough to reach the top in science</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Science and empire</h2>
<p>Carey provides a nuanced analysis of how early Australian science was entangled with <a href="https://www.allaboutscience.org/what-is-social-darwinism-faq.htm">social Darwinism</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugenics">eugenics</a> and genocide. She embeds the practices of collecting specimens and artefacts for scientific purposes in a nexus of colonial mastery and frontier violence. Importantly, she also notes the contributions made by Indigenous people, including women, in providing expert botanical, zoological, geological and other knowledge. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=917&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508235/original/file-20230206-27-27sr65.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1152&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A history of science might not usually include social activism. Carey describes how women were the backbone of science-informed social reform movements in the late 1800s and early 20th century.</p>
<p>Women were supposed to stay out of politics and concern themselves with the domestic sphere, but social reform was an acceptable arena for white, middle class women to exercise their talents. Their efforts established kindergartens, school medical services, sex education and family planning clinics across Australia. However, as Carey points out, these lofty ideals were also often driven by racist and eugenic motivations. </p>
<p>The emphasis on mothers and children’s welfare had a sinister and very political side. It was mobilised to support empire and “<a href="https://www.nma.gov.au/defining-moments/resources/end-of-white-australia-policy">White Australia</a>”. Improving the lot of whites would keep at bay the rising tide of “degenerates” and the threat of <a href="https://research-repository.uwa.edu.au/en/publications/proper-mixed-up-miscegenation-among-aboriginal-australians">miscegenation</a> or “race-mixing”. </p>
<p>Australian women and women’s organisations participated in global networks promoting eugenics. The goal of keeping the race “pure” led directly to the <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/bringing-them-home-report-1997">Stolen Generations</a> and <a href="https://disability.royalcommission.gov.au/system/files/2021-10/DRC.9999.0079.0005.pdf">other atrocities</a>. </p>
<h2>Victim or pick-me girl?</h2>
<p>From the late 1800s, female scientists were herded into lower roles such as laboratory demonstrators, and paid less than their male counterparts for the same work. They were expected or forced to resign upon marriage. </p>
<p>A “<a href="https://insidestory.org.au/the-long-slow-demise-of-the-marriage-bar/">marriage bar</a>” for Commonwealth employees lasted until 1966 (and informally long after that). It’s worth reflecting on what marriage entailed for women before the rise of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-wave_feminism">second-wave feminism</a>. It meant, in general, that a woman was financially dependent on her husband. She was obliged to relinquish her identity as an adult human being to serve the needs of her husband and children. </p>
<p>Women lost not only their surname but their first name too: they became “Mrs Joe Bloggs”. They lost their bodily autonomy, being expected to provide sexual services to their husband. Rape in marriage was <a href="http://www.auswhn.org.au/blog/marital-rape/">legal until 1976 </a>in South Australia and later in other states. (At high school in the early 1980s, I was taught that it was a sin to deny a husband his conjugal rights). </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1145&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1439&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1439&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508231/original/file-20230206-21-xew3l.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1439&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">News of Ethel McLellan in 1931.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Trove</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For those not forced out by marriage, cracking the glass ceiling was often impossible. The case of <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mclennan-ethel-irene-15527">Ethel McLennan’s</a> rejection for the post of professor of botany at Melbourne University in 1937 highlights a problem that is every bit as prevalent today. The man chosen instead of her was, to quote one of her colleagues, appointed “on his promise rather than his established position”.</p>
<p>Despite such practices, many academic women in the 1930s and 40s were adamant that they had experienced no discrimination. Carey points to a 1941 survey, which suggests that university women had a “far lower perception of discrimination than those employed elsewhere”. </p>
<p>Carey notes that, at a time when universities were elite and expensive institutions to attend, these women were already very privileged compared to the bulk of their sisters. Over time, pay parity had increased, and many women continued to work after marriage. But they were sequestered in poorly-paid, low-ranked jobs, and in fields, such as botany, which had few men. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=985&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1237&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1237&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508232/original/file-20230206-19-idntfr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1237&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Margaret Blackwood pictured in 1944.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many, from the 1940s to the 1970s, explicitly rejected feminism, while also working to achieve social goods around education and health. Carey unpicks this contradiction. She quotes botanist <a href="https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/blackwood-dame-margaret-12218">Margaret Blackwood</a> from 1980: “I am not a feminist or women’s libber … I do get stinking mad when I see prejudice against women, but it’s no good having a chip on your shoulder. You don’t get anywhere”.</p>
<p>Georgina King was evidence of that. But the choice was between being the victim or a pick-me girl, in today’s parlance. Neither is a winning position for women. </p>
<h2>The blokes take over</h2>
<p>In the decades after the second world war, Australian science became the field of men. The contribution of science to the war efforts increased its prestige; and although the numbers of women studying and gaining employment after the 1940s remained steady, they were now vastly outnumbered. Carey argues that numerous changes in this period led to the shape of science professions as we see them today. </p>
<p>Because of the marriage bar, promoting science careers to women was seen as a waste of time. In any case, job advertisements specified if they were for men or women; and until the 1970s, most of them were for men. </p>
<p>It was particularly difficult to get research positions, which, as Carey points out, made it hard for women to define themselves as scientists as they were not able to conduct research. As usual, teaching science was more accessible than being a scientist.</p>
<p>The radioastronomer <a href="https://csiropedia.csiro.au/payne-scott-ruby/">Ruby Payne-Scott</a> noted in the 1940s: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>There is probably more prejudice against employing women in mathematics and physics than in any other science except geology.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Payne-Scott’s research is foundational to the entire field of radioastronomy globally. When I first became aware of her work, her contributions as represented in Wikipedia were trivialised and underplayed in favour of her male collaborators. That has thankfully changed. Now she is celebrated by her former employer, CSIRO; but she was one of many forced out of science by marriage.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=865&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508233/original/file-20230206-27-kijojf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1087&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ruby Payne-Scott, Alec Little (middle) and ‘Chris’ Christiansen at the Potts Hill Reservoir Division of Radiophysics field station in about 1948.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jessica Chapman/Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Women dominated in fields like biology, botany and dietetics, which are still considered more appropriate for women than the “harder” sciences of physics, mathematics and engineering. </p>
<p>Carey documents how this division was predetermined by school subjects. Girls’ schools did not teach physics, while boys’ schools did not teach biology. In the 1940s and 1950s, this led to the numbers of women taking chemistry and physics in Victoria dropping radically.</p>
<p>In the universities, women were edged out of the positions they did hold even in the female-dominated fields, with some male professors actively trying to replace them with men.</p>
<p>By the 1950s, Carey says, the current gender divisions with women in the “soft” sciences and men in the “hard” sciences were entrenched. The post-war marriage boom further alienated women from science careers. If anything, the 1940s and 50s were more sexist than the pre-war decades. </p>
<p>There was a shortage of scientists; but anything was better than employing a woman. Men were preferentially appointed over more qualified women. Many senior scientists and science administrators began their careers in these decades; and these are the attitudes they were inculcated with.</p>
<p>Women also experienced discrimination because they had two jobs, as wives and mothers, and as employees. Their lower capacity to work at all hours was a black mark against them. Hence men derived the benefit of having their career supported by their partner’s domestic and emotional labour, and an absence of female competitors at work. </p>
<p>Women were (and still are) competing against this unfair advantage. It was not a social expectation that men shared domestic and family duties equally with women until the 1980s (and the current expectation that they do is <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4242525/">very different from reality</a>). This was no meritocracy or level playing field.</p>
<p>As Carey says of the post-war decades, </p>
<blockquote>
<p>The fact that women were excluded so strongly, even in the face of the severe shortage of qualified scientific workers, is suggestive of the importance of masculinisation to the status and self-image of science in this period. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>As the face of science in Australia changed, the professions started to forget the earlier achievements of women in the field.</p>
<h2>The lack of toilets</h2>
<p>“The field” refers to a disciplinary area, but it also means the location of fieldwork – outside the laboratory, often in remote or difficult places, where scientists go to collect data.</p>
<p>Going into the field for women was a radical act. They were supposed to stay at home, or at most, in the lab or classroom. Their participation was also restricted by the lack of toilets – in Victorian Britain, this was called the “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-41999792">urinary leash</a>”, which limited the distances women could travel. Lack of toilets was used as an excuse for why women could not be employed, or work at field research stations. </p>
<p>In the 1950s, a woman who responded to a survey by Carey related how </p>
<blockquote>
<p>After rejection of several job applications with the excuse of ‘no toilets for women’ at our research station, I decided to study nutrition and dietetics, a predominantly female field.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Many women were rejected for jobs because they were not held capable of fieldwork. As a young archaeologist, I heard these stories from more than one senior woman. This was even before factoring menstruation, pregnancy, lactation, and menopause into managing fieldwork, and without raising the constant threats of sexual harassment and violence. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/508536/original/file-20230207-13-thrfjl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It has been difficult for women scientists to leave the lab behind for fieldwork.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-more-women-in-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-61664">How to keep more women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Fieldwork is a radical act</h2>
<p>Only in the last decade has it become possible to discuss these issues. Being in the field entails risks for women scientists because of the behaviour of men. There’s no getting around this.</p>
<p>Inevitably, reading a book like Taking to the Field invites us to contemplate how much has changed and how much remains to be done. As Carey says, there is power in “naming and claiming” forgotten women scientists. So many were relegated to work perceived as routine and repetitive, such as demonstrating, teaching, cataloguing stars, or programming computers. </p>
<p>Re-categorising these skills and knowledge enables their substantive scientific contributions to be recognised, as audiences have seen so compellingly in films like <a href="https://physicstoday.scitation.org/do/10.1063/pt.5.9081/full/">Hidden Figures</a>. Making these women visible again isn’t just about having more role models: it’s about feeling that science is a place where we belong.</p>
<p>Once again, there is a shortage of scientists, while the <a href="https://www.industry.gov.au/news/state-stem-gender-equity-2022">number of women in STEM fields</a> has barely increased over recent decades. The reasons are complex; but they can’t be addressed without understanding the deeper context provided by Carey’s invaluable analysis of Australian science.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/198407/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alice Gorman is a member of the Women in Space Chapter of the National Space Society of Australia. She is a former mentor in the UN Office of Outer Space Affairs Space4Women programme.</span></em></p>
A new book explores a paradox: women have been excluded from Australian science for many social and political reasons, but were also present and active in it from its earliest days.
Alice Gorman, Associate Professor in Archaeology and Space Studies, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193930
2022-12-08T23:04:04Z
2022-12-08T23:04:04Z
Ada Lovelace’s skills with language, music and needlepoint contributed to her pioneering work in computing
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499373/original/file-20221206-10118-sz9tym.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C14%2C2435%2C1657&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, was more than just another mathematician.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Ada_Lovelace_portrait.jpg">Watercolor portrait of Ada King, Countess of Lovelace by Alfred Edward Chalon via Wikimedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Ada Lovelace, known as the first computer programmer, was born on Dec. 10, 1815, more than a century before digital electronic computers were developed. </p>
<p>Lovelace has been hailed as a model for girls in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). A dozen biographies for young audiences were published for the 200th anniversary of her birth in 2015. And in 2018, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked-ada-lovelace.html">The New York Times added hers</a> as one of the first “missing obituaries” of women at the rise of the #MeToo movement. </p>
<p>But Lovelace – properly Ada King, Countess of Lovelace after her marriage – drew on many different fields for her innovative work, including languages, music and needlecraft, in addition to mathematical logic. Recognizing that her well-rounded education enabled her to accomplish work that was well ahead of her time, she can be a model for all students, not just girls. </p>
<p>Lovelace was the daughter of the scandal-ridden romantic poet George Gordon Byron, aka Lord Byron, and his highly educated and strictly religious wife Anne Isabella Noel Byron, known as Lady Byron. Lovelace’s parents separated shortly after her birth. At a time when women were not allowed to own property and had few legal rights, her mother managed to secure custody of her daughter.</p>
<p>Growing up in a privileged aristocratic family, Lovelace was educated by home tutors, <a href="https://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/adalovelace/2018/07/27/ada-lovelace-the-making-of-a-computer-scientist/">as was common for girls like her</a>. She received lessons in French and Italian, music and in suitable handicrafts such as embroidery. Less common for a girl in her time, she also studied math. Lovelace continued to work with math tutors into her adult life, and she eventually corresponded with mathematician and logician <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augustus-De-Morgan">Augustus De Morgan</a> at London University about symbolic logic. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="antique black-and-white photograph of a woman in an elaborate outfit" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499374/original/file-20221206-8973-zv7gqi.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=942&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A rare photograph of Ada Lovelace.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Ada_Byron_daguerreotype_by_Antoine_Claudet_1843_or_1850_-_cropped.png">Daguerreotype by Antoine Claudet via Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Lovelace’s algorithm</h2>
<p>Lovelace drew on all of these lessons when she wrote her <a href="https://catalog.lindahall.org/discovery/delivery/01LINDAHALL_INST:LHL/12100178280005961#page=680">computer program</a> – in reality, it was a set of instructions for a mechanical calculator that had been built only in parts. </p>
<p>The computer in question was the <a href="https://www.computerhistory.org/babbage/engines/">Analytical Engine</a> designed by mathematician, philosopher and inventor <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Charles-Babbage">Charles Babbage</a>. Lovelace had met Babbage when she was introduced to London society. The two related to each other over their shared love for mathematics and fascination for mechanical calculation. By the early 1840s, Babbage had won and lost government funding for a mathematical calculator, fallen out with the skilled craftsman building the precision parts for his machine, and was close to giving up on his project. At this point, Lovelace stepped in as an advocate. </p>
<p>To make Babbage’s calculator known to a British audience, Lovelace proposed to translate into English an article that described the Analytical Engine. The article was written in French by the Italian mathematician <a href="https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Menabrea/">Luigi Menabrea</a> and published in a Swiss journal. Scholars believe that <a href="https://www.mhpbooks.com/books/adas-algorithm/">Babbage encouraged her to add notes of her own</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/J7ITqnEmf-g?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Ada Lovelace envisioned in the early 19th century the possibilities of computing.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In her notes, which ended up twice as long as the original article, Lovelace drew on different areas of her education. Lovelace began by describing how to code instructions onto cards with punched holes, like those used for the <a href="https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/the-french-connection">Jacquard weaving loom</a>, a device patented in 1804 that used punch cards to automate weaving patterns in fabric. </p>
<p>Having learned embroidery herself, Lovelace was familiar with the repetitive patterns used for handicrafts. Similarly repetitive steps were needed for mathematical calculations. To avoid duplicating cards for repetitive steps, Lovelace used <a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/book/10.1145/28095230">loops, nested loops and conditional testing</a> in her program instructions.</p>
<p>The notes included instructions on how to calculate <a href="https://mathworld.wolfram.com/BernoulliNumber.html">Bernoulli numbers</a>, which Lovelace knew from her training to be important in the study of mathematics. Her program showed that the Analytical Engine was capable of performing original calculations that had not yet been performed manually. At the same time, Lovelace noted that the machine could only follow instructions and not “<a href="https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Innovators/Walter-Isaacson/9781476708706">originate anything</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a yellowed sheet of paper with spreadsheet-like lines" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=407&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/499815/original/file-20221208-7231-ctxrb1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ada Lovelace created this chart for the individual program steps to calculate Bernoulli numbers.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Courtesy of Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Finally, Lovelace recognized that the numbers manipulated by the Analytical Engine could be seen as other types of symbols, such as musical notes. An accomplished singer and pianist, Lovelace was familiar with musical notation symbols representing aspects of musical performance such as pitch and duration, and she had manipulated logical symbols in her correspondence with De Morgan. It was not a large step for her to realize that the Analytical Engine could process symbols — not just crunch numbers — and even compose music. </p>
<h2>A well-rounded thinker</h2>
<p>Inventing computer programming was not the first time Lovelace brought her knowledge from different areas to bear on a new subject. For example, as a young girl, she was fascinated with flying machines. Bringing together biology, mechanics and poetry, she asked her mother for anatomical books to study the function of bird wings. She built and experimented with wings, and in her letters, she metaphorically expressed her longing for her mother in the <a href="https://books.google.com/books/about/Ada_the_Enchantress_of_Numbers.html?id=jCKmtAEACAAJ">language of flying</a>. </p>
<p>Despite her talents in logic and math, Lovelace <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-78973-2">didn’t pursue a scientific career</a>. She was independently wealthy and never earned money from her scientific pursuits. This was common, however, at a time when freedom – including financial independence – was equated with the <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691178165/leviathan-and-the-air-pump">capability to impartially conduct scientific experiments</a>. In addition, Lovelace devoted just over a year to her only publication, the translation of and notes on Menabrea’s paper about the Analytical Engine. Otherwise, in her life cut short by cancer at age 37, she vacillated between math, music, her mother’s demands, care for her own three children, and eventually a passion for gambling. Lovelace thus may not be an obvious model as a female scientist for girls today.</p>
<p>However, I find Lovelace’s way of drawing on her well-rounded education to solve difficult problems inspirational. True, she lived in an age before scientific specialization. Even Babbage was a <a href="https://theconversation.com/nobel-prizes-most-often-go-to-researchers-who-defy-specialization-winners-are-creative-thinkers-who-synthesize-innovations-from-varied-fields-and-even-hobbies-186193">polymath</a> who worked in mathematical calculation and mechanical innovation. He also published a treatise on industrial manufacturing and another on religious questions of creationism. </p>
<p>But Lovelace applied knowledge from what we today think of as disparate fields in the sciences, arts and the humanities. A well-rounded thinker, she created solutions that were well ahead of her time.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193930/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Corinna Schlombs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Lovelace was a prodigious math talent who learned from the giants of her time, but her linguistic and creative abilities were also important in her invention of computer programming.
Corinna Schlombs, Associate Professor of History, Rochester Institute of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/190620
2022-10-05T12:19:29Z
2022-10-05T12:19:29Z
Women in Antarctica face assault and harassment – and a legacy of exclusion and mistreatment
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486604/original/file-20220926-14-mtxbhx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=24%2C40%2C5439%2C3596&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Women in Antarctica experience significant barriers of sexism, prejudice and abuse.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-hikes-antarctic-peninsula-mountain-orne-royalty-free-image/1127819207">milehightraveler/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>A federal report that, in the words of its key finding, “<a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/documents/USAP%20SAHPR%20Report.pdf#page=7">sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking are problems</a> in the U.S. Antarctic Program community” – and that efforts “dedicated to prevention [are] nearly absent” – drew attention around the world. But as <a href="https://www.depts.ttu.edu/history/faculty/profiles/McCahey_Daniella.php">a historian of Antarctic science</a>, I did not find it surprising at all.</p>
<p>The report, released in August 2022 by the <a href="https://nsf.gov/">National Science Foundation</a>, which runs the <a href="https://www.usap.gov/">United States Antarctic Program</a>, found that many scientists and workers believe human resources staff “are dismissing, minimizing, shaming, and blaming victims who report sexual harassment and sexual assault.” A report with <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-63085209">similar findings about its national program</a> was released by the Australian Antarctic Division in late September 2022.</p>
<p>The fields of Antarctic science and exploration have long excluded women from the region altogether and <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/geo/opp/documents/USAP%20SAHPR%20Report.pdf#page=7">still have a strong culture focused on masculinity and chauvinism</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women and a dog" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=350&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486598/original/file-20220926-4407-yqggt0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=440&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jennie Darlington, left, with Edith ‘Jackie’ Ronne, the first two women to be part of an Antarctic expedition, in 1947.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://polarjournal.ch/en/2020/07/21/edith-jackie-ronne-a-woman-first-in-antarctica/">Polar Journal</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>An early opportunity</h2>
<p>The first Antarctic expedition to include women was the <a href="http://www.ronneantarcticexplorers.com/ronne_antarctic_research_expedition.htm">Ronne Antarctic Research Expedition</a>, in 1947-1948, a U.S.-based expedition with funding from the government and private sources, led by U.S. Navy Capt. Finn Ronne. His wife Edith “Jackie” Ronne accompanied her husband, as did Jennie Darlington, the wife of one of the pilots, Harry Darlington.</p>
<p>Their inclusion was groundbreaking. But their presence also <a href="https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/1916-deep-freeze">was perceived by many in the polar community</a> to contribute to tensions between the young and inexperienced men, “hardening into a mold of accusation, innuendo, and dissension. … <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/17009323">Tension and turmoil were to take precedent over pioneering</a>,” as one historian wrote.</p>
<p>Jackie Ronne would return to Antarctica several times. But at that first expedition’s conclusion, Jennie Darlington asserted that “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/1336731?hl=en">women do not belong in the Antarctic</a>” because of the harsh conditions, which might cause a person to require assistance or even rescue. She wrote, “Men should not be put in the position of endangering his own safety for another, lesser physical human.”</p>
<p>Darlington also reflected on the emotional burden she undertook. Many men, including her husband, believed that “Antarctica symbolized a haven, a place of high ideals and that <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/1336731?hl=en">inner peace men find only in an all-male atmosphere</a> in primitive surroundings.” She wrote, “My job was to be as inconspicuous within the group as possible. I felt that all feminine instincts should be sublimated. … I was determined not to act like a woman in a man’s world.” </p>
<p>She also commented on the psychological difficulty for both the women: “It was a tenuous balance, in which as women, <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/1336731?hl=en">we bore the major responsibility for the men’s conduct toward us</a>. … Any drawing of attention to myself, any gesture or indication that I expected certain courtesies, any show of bossiness or pretense would have been resented.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Four women in parkas" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486596/original/file-20220926-12637-86yky6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The first four women to do research through the U.S. Antarctic Program in 1969 were, from left, Kay Lindsay, Terry Tickhill, Lois Jones and Eileen McSaveney.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4406/">Eileen McSaveney via Antarctic Sun</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Excluding women</h2>
<p>The global scientific effort called the <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/feature/65-years-ago-the-international-geophysical-year-begins/">International Geophysical Year</a> in 1957-1958 changed the nature of Antarctic research from relatively small, short-term expeditions to the establishment of permanent bases on the continent. But as various countries shaped their respective Antarctic programs, many were adamant that women would not be included.</p>
<p>U.S. Navy Adm. George Dufek, the supervisor of U.S. programs in Antarctica, declared in 1957 that “<a href="https://upcolorado.com/university-press-of-colorado/item/1916-deep-freeze">women will not be allowed in the Antarctic until we can provide one woman for every man</a>,” implying that there would be no need for women in Antarctica except as sexual partners for the men.</p>
<p>Vivian Fuchs, the director of the British Antarctic Survey from 1958 to 1973, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873746">took a similar position</a> in the 1950s and declared as late as 1982: “Should it happen one day that women are included as part of the base complement, <a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/12665891">problems will certainly arise</a> [and] lead to the breakdown of that sense of unity which is so important to the group.”</p>
<p>The first women to formally participate in United States fieldwork were those in the <a href="https://artsandsciences.osu.edu/news/celebrating-lois-jones-50-year-legacy-polar-research">expedition led by geochemist Lois Jones</a> in 1969. Jones was permitted by the National Science Foundation to visit Antarctica only if she could form an <a href="https://antarcticsun.usap.gov/features/4406/">all-women’s expedition</a>. </p>
<p>Her <a href="https://byrd.osu.edu/symposia/celebrate-women/overview">team of four</a> was among the first six women to visit the South Pole, in a publicity stunt orchestrated by the U.S. Navy in which the women were labeled “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/40602685">powder puff explorers</a>” by the media. </p>
<p>A senior New Zealand geologist, whom Jones had lobbied for assistance with her initial application, later appeared to regret it. He wrote a sexist screed declaring, “The flood gates opened and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873746">every feminist world-wide screamed sexism, racism etc.</a> if they were refused an expensive three month Antarctic trip. It is an age-old desire of unmarried females to be where the boys are and in many I have met, there is no question this was the dominant urge.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C1%2C538%2C432&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Six women wearing heavy parkas stand in front of a large striped pole with a mirrored ball on top." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=7%2C1%2C538%2C432&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=481&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/486589/original/file-20220926-13-mx03zh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">From left, the first six women ever to visit the South Pole, in 1969: Pam Young, Jean Pearson, Terry Tickhill, Lois Jones, Eileen McSaveney and Kay Lindsay.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nsf.gov/news/news_images.jsp?cntn_id=115957&org=OPP">U.S. Navy via National Science Foundation</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Obstacles abound</h2>
<p>Irene Penden, the first woman to work in the Antarctic interior, went in 1970 to study the <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/trailblazing-engineer-irene-peden-broke-antarctic-barriers-women-180972330/">movement of very low radio frequency waves</a>. But it wasn’t easy. She later wrote, “For whatever reason, probably because there had been so much foot-dragging about and resentment of the first women going there, a mythology had been created about the women who’d gone to the coast – that they had been a problem. <a href="https://worldcat.org/title/37903491">I heard that their presence had been a problem</a> and they had not been productive because they had not published anything yet.” Yet it had only been a few months since that first group of women had finished their research season, and generally it takes more than a year for field data to be converted into scientific articles.</p>
<p>Further, the U.S. Navy, which controlled the transportation to, from and within Antarctica, also argued that Penden should be forbidden because of the lack of women’s bathrooms on board ships and in the Antarctic generally. It is a complaint that was echoed throughout the period of women’s integration into Antarctic national programs through the 1990s, as well as in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/2154896X.2017.1373915">other settings such as the military and outer space</a>.</p>
<p>While most principal investigators did not need to write a proposal to get a trip to Antarctica, to put pressure on the Navy, the National Science Foundation required that she write a specific proposal for a short-term trip, have it peer-reviewed, and get it approved internally. After “I went through that whole rigamarole … they kept dragging their feet,” she wrote. So Penden arranged to give a briefing on her work to relevant people from the National Science Foundation and the Navy so that Navy leadership “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/37903491">could see how totally scientific and professional I was</a> [and] would realize that I was not some adventuress just trying to get down there where all the men were, which was the kind of thing they were saying.” </p>
<p>The admiral in question did not come to the meeting. However, he later gave permission for her travel if she could find a woman to accompany her. Rather than find another scientist, Penden was accompanied by a New Zealand mountaineer, Julia Vickers. While on the ice, Penden was warned by the station chief, “<a href="https://www.worldcat.org/title/women-in-the-antarctic/oclc/37903491">If you fail</a>, there won’t be another woman on the Antarctic continent for a generation.”</p>
<h2>Hostility builds</h2>
<p>One major result of the practice of excluding women and singling them out as outsiders was that behavior explicitly hostile to women became commonplace in Antarctica.</p>
<p>While women started being part of the United States research program in 1969, the British Antarctic Survey did not fully integrate until 1996, finally allowing women to spend the winter at their remote Halley Station. In the bases and expeditions mounted by both nations, and other countries too, Antarctica remained constructed as a place that was decidedly male. </p>
<p>Pornographic material was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/0966369X.2021.1873746">publicly consumed and even created</a>. Walls were often decorated with images of nude or scantily clad women. The carpenter’s hut at Australia’s Mawson Station famously included the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/593379">Sistine Ceiling</a>,” with clippings of over 90 Playboy models plastered over the ceiling and walls. </p>
<p>This remained at Mawson until 2005, 20 years after women were allowed to work at the station. That year it was destroyed by an unknown person to the disappointment of some, who felt the destroyer had “<a href="https://worldcat.org/title/711720087">assumed the right to play heritage vandal or moral police for everyone</a>.”</p>
<p>Today, the idea that Antarctica is a region <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0032247418000207">dominated by adventurous hero-scientists</a> persists. The stereotypical image of a man sporting <a href="https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/antarctica-9781844866236/">an ice-encrusted beard</a> remains the most emblematic visage of an Antarctic explorer. And this view of Antarctica <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132515623368">as a place for men</a> continues to create barriers to women’s participation both on <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209983">stations and in remote fieldwork</a>.</p>
<p>Indeed, Antarctic science remains <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/593340">highly male-dominated</a>, which, during the early days of the #MeToo movement in 2017, revealed <a href="https://doi.org/10.1080/08164649.2020.1774864">many troubling allegations about the dangers that women continued to face</a>, including sexual harassment and even sexual assault. So while this recent National Science Foundation report may have many shocking and revealing elements, <a href="https://theconversation.com/antarctic-stations-are-plagued-by-sexual-harassment-its-time-for-things-to-change-189984">none of it is a surprise to any woman</a> who has either worked or attempted to work in Antarctica.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/190620/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Daniella McCahey has received funding from the National Science Foundation and the Royal Society of New Zealand. </span></em></p>
The U.S. Antarctic Program struggles to keep women safe – and through the continent’s history, discrimination and prejudice are rampant.
Daniella McCahey, Assistant Professor of History, Texas Tech University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183631
2022-05-27T02:39:17Z
2022-05-27T02:39:17Z
Small step for Nature, giant leap across the gender gap: leading journal will make sex and gender reporting mandatory in research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464952/original/file-20220524-12-yvmvxg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=22%2C0%2C5089%2C2880&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Like in many aspects of life, there remains an undercurrent of sex bias against women in the STEM fields. And this bias has a negative impact on not only women, but men too – and those who don’t fit within a binary category. </p>
<p>Nature journals are now taking <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-01218-9">a leap</a> for sex and gender equity with new reporting requirements, and it’s a welcome step in the right direction.</p>
<p>I work in the field of bioengineering, and researchers such as myself understand first hand the damage that can be done when sex and gender are not properly accounted for – and reported on – in research. </p>
<h2>Nature journals a new policy</h2>
<p>Come June, researchers who submit papers to a subset of the Nature Portfolio journals (see details <a href="https://www.nature.com/nature-portfolio/editorial-policies/ethics-and-biosecurity">here</a>) will need to describe whether, and how, sex and gender are considered in study design. </p>
<p>If no sex and gender analyses were carried out, authors will need to clarify why. This will apply to work with human participants, as well as other vertebrate animals and cell experimental studies. So in the same way that ethics approval, clinical trials registration, or informed consent must be demonstrated where relevant, so too will consideration of sex and gender.</p>
<h2>But what are sex and gender?</h2>
<p>“Sex” and “gender” are terms that are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. Sex refers to biological attributes, including genetics and reproductive organs. Gender is shaped by social and cultural influences, and may or may not align with an individual’s biological sex. Both sex and gender can influence our health.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-genes-and-evolution-shape-gender-and-transgender-identity-108911">How genes and evolution shape gender – and transgender – identity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<p>Authors writing for Nature journals will also need to present “data disaggregated by sex and gender” where relevant. This means that rather than the (more often than not) approach of lumping male and female data together, it will need to be separated.</p>
<p>This is a necessary move towards unravelling differences between males and females. Researchers are encouraged to follow the Sex and Gender Equity in Research <a href="https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6">guidelines</a> when designing research studies.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=412&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/464941/original/file-20220524-16-shgeqb.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=518&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Sex and Gender Equity in Research guidelines are a procedure for the reporting of sex and gender information in study design, data analyses and results.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">SAGER</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A lack of sex and gender considerations puts all at risk</h2>
<p>Failure to conduct sex and gender-based analysis occurs across a range of disciplines. For example, in the field of engineering, car safety is designed for an average male body. This puts women at <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2019/feb/23/truth-world-built-for-men-car-crashes">higher risk of injuries and death</a> in the event of a crash. </p>
<p>Another example comes with facial recognition technologies, where <a href="https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-finds-gender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligence-systems-0212">studies have found</a> error rates for “gender” classification are higher for females than for males (and also higher for darker-skinned people).</p>
<p>But medicine is one of the fields which is arguably most affected by a lack of sex and gender-based reporting.</p>
<p>Consequences can also be dire in medicine, where limited understanding of sex differences in biology and disease can directly impact on health. Our biological sex can make us more likely to suffer from certain diseases. It can make us respond differently to internal factors (<a href="https://www.aafp.org/afp/2009/1201/p1254.html">such as the drugs we’re taking</a>) or external factors (<a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3425245/">such as stress</a>). It can even make us feel pain <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1550857905800427">differently</a>. </p>
<p>Our sex can influence the way we manifest symptoms for the same diseases, such as <a href="https://www.goredforwomen.org/en/about-heart-disease-in-women/signs-and-symptoms-in-women/symptoms-of-a-heart-attack">heart attack</a> and <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3324562/">stroke</a>. For instance, symptoms of a women’s heart attack, such as <a href="https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/heart-disease/in-depth/heart-disease/art-20046167">fatigue, shortness of breath and nausea</a> are labelled “atypical”, and lead to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/jul/23/women-half-as-likely-to-get-proper-heart-attack-treatment-in-australia">worse treatment and outcomes</a>.</p>
<p>Large male biases have existed across all phases of medical research. There are many reasons for this. One is that female biology can often complicate things. A woman’s hormones fluctuate monthly and over her lifetime. </p>
<p>Another reason, historically, is protectionism. While it’s almost unbelievable (but true), women of “childbearing potential” were <a href="https://blog.petrieflom.law.harvard.edu/2021/04/16/pregnant-clinical-trials-safety-autonomy/#">excluded from clinical trials</a> from 1977 until 1993, to protect the “potential unborn” child.</p>
<p>On top of this is simply a lack of awareness, and a historical assumption (although this is finally changing) that what applies to men also applies to women. </p>
<h2>Men can be harmed too</h2>
<p>Sex-bias in medicine isn’t just putting women’s health at risk; it can also endanger men. For example, osteoporosis is up to four times more common in women. As a result, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5380170/">men are under-screened</a> and under-diagnosed in this area – yet they have a higher chance of complication or death after breaking a bone. </p>
<p>The COVID-19 virus has also been shown to differ between sexes, with males being more likely to require intensive <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19741-6">care treatment and having a higher risk of dying</a>. These differences lead to questions around the reason(s) behind this. </p>
<p>What are the underlying sex differences causing this? Is it the immune system? Is it differences in hormones? Much is still unknown. </p>
<h2>We must acknowledge the sex and gender gap</h2>
<p>A big hurdle in narrowing the gender gap in healthcare is a lack of awareness that such a gap still exists. Sex and gender perspectives in health and biology need to be integrated into all aspects of medicine – from health research to medical education, through to clinical practise. This requires a concerted effort from governments, education systems and industry.</p>
<p>Many initiatives and institutes have been formed around the world to address issues around sex, gender and health, such as <a href="https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/8673.html">Canada’s Institute of Gender and Health</a>. Australia and New Zealand need to align with other countries and implement sex and gender analysis in health and medical research. </p>
<p>And I, for one, echo Nature’s <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03459-y">wise words</a>: “Accounting for sex and gender makes for better science.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/closing-the-gender-gap-in-the-life-sciences-is-an-uphill-struggle-112920">Closing the gender gap in the life sciences is an uphill struggle</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183631/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kelly Burrowes is the Founder of The FemTech Revolution. </span></em></p>
Authors writing for Nature journals will also need to separate sex and gender data, so it can’t just be lumped in with other results.
Kelly Burrowes, Senior Researcher, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/179931
2022-04-08T12:32:08Z
2022-04-08T12:32:08Z
Fishing, strip clubs and golf: How male-focused networking in medicine blocks female colleagues from top jobs
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456701/original/file-20220406-12863-lo8xzf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=23%2C1074%2C7893%2C4095&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Building relationships with colleagues outside of work is important for career development. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/multi-racial-business-colleagues-at-conference-in-royalty-free-image/1340724372?adppopup=true">10'000 Hours/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Women have been entering academic medicine at <a href="https://nap.nationalacademies.org/read/25785/chapter/1">nearly the same rate as men for decades</a>, but <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJM200002103420606">very few women reach the top levels of leadership</a>. For example, as of April 2022, of the 71 U.S. cancer centers designated by the National Cancer Institute, only seven are directed by women. In 2018, women accounted for <a href="https://www.aamc.org/data-reports/faculty-institutions/report/state-women-academic-medicine">16% of medical school deans, 18% of department chairs and 25% of full professors</a>. To this day, women are still less likely than men to become associate or full professors of medicine or to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMsa1916935">be appointed as chairs of university medical departments</a> – and there has been no narrowing of this gender gap over time.</p>
<p>I am a <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=10vXfYgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">cancer researcher, physician and surgeon</a>, and I also study gender inequity within medicine. In my most recent research, I interviewed more than 100 people in medicine to better understand why women struggle to advance in academic medicine. From this work, one important reason seems to be that women are consistently <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2022.101338">excluded from important, male-dominated networking activities</a>, especially golf.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three men watching sports and drinking." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456705/original/file-20220406-26-3t2qv4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Men mentioned watching or playing sports as a common networking activity in which women didn’t frequently participate.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/ecstatic-men-watching-soocer-game-in-a-bar-after-royalty-free-image/515524312?adppopup=true">Tomazl/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Exclusion from networking blocks women’s advancement</h2>
<p>Networking is essential to success in many professional fields. Networking <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3081781">leads to success</a> in many ways. When colleagues befriend one another, they can promote one another’s careers and exchange information about opportunities. Networking also allows junior people to meet powerful senior colleagues who may take them under their wings and become invested in their success. </p>
<p>The effects of these social connections can be very tangible. Research in the sales field has shown that women who networked through golf made more sales of significantly higher value <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2020.05.005">than women who did not play golf</a>. </p>
<p>In my recent study, I wanted to see what kinds of activities are important for networking in research-focused medical institutions – and whether women were excluded. </p>
<p>To do this, I conducted interviews with 52 female and 52 male faculty members at 16 university medical centers across the U.S. in 2019. The people I spoke with had similar levels of education and years of professional experience, and similar career goals and ambitions for advancement and leadership. I asked each interviewee questions such as “How do people come to occupy leadership positions at your institution?” and “How has your gender played a role in your experiences in academic medicine?”</p>
<p>Both men and women mentioned “networking” and specifically “the boys club” – which excludes women – as important factors in career advancement.</p>
<p>Nearly all interviewees – 51 of the 52 men and 50 of the 52 women – saw networking as critical for career advancement. Despite the fact that interview questions never used the term “boys club,” 73% of the women and 42% of the men brought up this concept on their own in the interviews.</p>
<p>Women are notably absent from a number of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243205283107">informal networking activities</a>. Of the 52 male interviewees, 30 mentioned watching or playing sports, five discussed hunting or fishing and five alluded to or mentioned strip clubs.</p>
<p>Nearly everyone I spoke to said networking often happened while drinking at bars, and this too was gendered. One male department chair said, “I think about the bar at meetings. The important stuff – the intangible side of science – happens there, and I worry about a male bias of who goes for drinks after the talks. Even when women join us, men may be more likely to hit on them after a few drinks rather than focus on helping their careers.”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Three men on a golf course and two shaking hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456704/original/file-20220406-17347-wsusk8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Both men and women described the golf course as a place where important decisions are made and where more junior people can get access to senior leaders.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/men-on-golf-course-putting-green-shaking-hands-royalty-free-image/185306650?adppopup=true">Kali9/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>Special access on the golf course</h2>
<p>Of all the places where the interviewees said important networking happens, none was more important than the golf course. Both men – 29% – and women – 38% – described the golf course as a key place where relationships are built.</p>
<p>As one male physician said, “Big decisions are made on the golf course.” These included discussion about who should get resources or nominated for prizes and awards. Another woman echoed this but also pointed out the inequity, saying, “All the powerful events here happen on the golf course. And it’s not like the men are ever going to let you in that foursome.”</p>
<p>Some of the interview questions sought to explore how and why women were excluded from golf. As one male physician explained, “It did not feel like we were actively excluding the women, but I can tell you that if there was a woman resident, she would not have been invited to the golf games.” </p>
<p>Many of the people I surveyed specifically mentioned another important aspect that sets golfing apart from other networking activities – it is important for career progression because it is a way to get access to people in power.</p>
<p>One senior male medical researcher clearly explained the connection and how women are excluded from these activities. “I play golf, I go fishing, and my golfing buddies and my fishing buddies are males, because that’s just the way you do it. It bugs the hell out of my female colleagues, because I go fishing with the president and the vice president, and they do not. It gives me special access they do not have.”</p>
<p>The women I spoke with were acutely aware of this access. During one interview, a woman said of a senior male leader where she worked, “Unless you play golf, you don’t have the opportunity to see him.”</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p>
<h2>Limitations to female networking</h2>
<p>Both men and women considered informal social occasions to be powerful tools in career advancement. <a href="https://hbr.org/2016/05/learn-to-love-networking">Many studies</a> in other fields <a href="https://homepages.se.edu/cvonbergen/files/2013/01/Effects-of-Networking-on-Career-Success_A-Longitudinal-Study.pdf">back up this idea</a>. </p>
<p>Many of the women in the study described efforts by women to make up for the lack of female-inclusive networking opportunities. </p>
<p>A few of the women I interviewed described semiformal networks they were a part of – such as the alumnae group of the <a href="https://drexel.edu/medicine/academics/womens-health-and-leadership/elam/">Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine program</a>. Others mentioned instances when female colleagues reached out to give them crucial information on salary negotiations or coached them for interviews for leadership positions. Finally, many shared experiences of informal networks around child care and family issues.</p>
<p>While these female-led networks were avenues for sharing information and provided some professional support, they lacked one key aspect present in many male groups: well-placed senior colleagues who could play a role in advancing the careers of more junior people. Since so few women occupy leadership positions today, there are inherent limitations to what female-led networking can accomplish, and women’s careers suffer because of it.</p>
<p>Many women in academic medicine are fully qualified to advance to the highest levels, yet they are not represented proportionally. My research shows that exclusion from networking opportunities is one of the reasons.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/179931/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jennifer R. Grandis does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
By surveying over 100 people in academic medicine, a researcher found that women are consistently excluded from important networking activities like watching sports, drinking at bars and playing golf.
Jennifer R. Grandis, Distinguished Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, University of California, San Francisco
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/178473
2022-03-04T13:21:44Z
2022-03-04T13:21:44Z
Women’s History Month: 5 groundbreaking researchers who mapped the ocean floor, tested atomic theories, vanquished malaria and more
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449925/original/file-20220303-8225-r5fm6i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=281%2C74%2C3403%2C2477&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Tu Youyou shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2015.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/nobel-medicine-prize-2015-co-winner-chinese-youyou-tu-news-photo/500814006">Claudio Bresciani/AFP via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Behind some of the most fascinating scientific discoveries and innovations are women whose names might not be familiar but whose stories are worth knowing.</p>
<p>Of course, there are far too many to all fit on one list.</p>
<p>But here are five profiles from The Conversation’s archive that highlight the brilliance, grit and unique perspectives of five women who worked in geosciences, math, ornithology, pharmacology and physics during the 20th century.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C1198%2C883&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Marie Tharp at work drafting a map at her desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C17%2C1198%2C883&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349770/original/file-20200727-35-1udrgwj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Marie Tharp with an undersea map at her desk. Rolled sonar profiles of the ocean floor are on the shelf behind her.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.ldeo.columbia.edu/news-events/join-us-celebrating-marietharp100">Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the estate of Marie Tharp</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>1. Revealing and mapping the ocean floor</h2>
<p>As late as the 1950s, wrote Wesleyan University <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ruUF3z4AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">geoscientist Suzanne OConnell</a>, “many scientists assumed the seabed was featureless.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="sketches of undersea features based on sonar" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=967&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/349741/original/file-20200727-15-69lzu4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1216&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An illustration of Marie Tharp’s mapping process. (a) Shows the position of two ship tracks (A, B) moving across the surface. (b) Plots depth recordings as profiles. (c) Sketches features shown on the profiles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://mirrorservice.org/sites/gutenberg.org/4/9/0/6/49069/49069-h/49069-h.htm">The Floors of the Ocean, 1959, Fig. 1</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/marie-tharp-pioneered-mapping-the-bottom-of-the-ocean-6-decades-ago-scientists-are-still-learning-about-earths-last-frontier-142451">Enter Marie Tharp</a>. In 1957, she and her research partner started publishing detailed hand-drawn maps of the ocean floor, complete with rugged mountains, valleys and deep trenches. </p>
<p>Tharp was a geologist and oceanographer. Aboard research ships, she would carefully record the depth of the ocean, point by point, using sonar. One of her innovations was to translate this data into topographical sketches of what the seafloor looked like.</p>
<p>Her discovery of a rift valley in the North Atlantic shook the world of geology – her supervisor on the ship dismissed her idea as “girl talk,” and Jacques Cousteau was determined to prove her wrong. But she was right, and her insight was a key contribution to plate tectonic theory. That’s part of why, OConnell writes, “I believe Tharp should be as famous as Jane Goodall or Neil Armstrong.”</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/marie-tharp-pioneered-mapping-the-bottom-of-the-ocean-6-decades-ago-scientists-are-still-learning-about-earths-last-frontier-142451">Marie Tharp pioneered mapping the bottom of the ocean 6 decades ago – scientists are still learning about Earth's last frontier</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>2. Sympathetic observation of bird behavior</h2>
<p>Margaret Morse Nice was a field biologist who <a href="https://theconversation.com/margaret-morse-nice-thought-like-a-song-sparrow-and-changed-how-scientists-understand-animal-behavior-123734">got into the minds of her study subjects</a> to garner new insights into animal behavior. Most famously she observed song sparrows in the 1920s and ‘30s.</p>
<p>Rochester Institute of Technology professor of science, technology and society <a href="https://www.rit.edu/directory/kjwgla-kristoffer-whitney">Kristoffer Whitney</a> recounted what Nice called her “phenomenological method,” acknowledging the obvious “affection and anthropomorphism” you can see in her descriptions. </p>
<p>“When I first studied the Song Sparrows,” Nice wrote, “I had looked upon Song Sparrow 4M as a truculent, meddlesome neighbor; but … I discovered him to be a delightful bird, spirited, an accomplished songster and a devoted father.”</p>
<p>Despite earning no advanced degrees and being considered an amateur, Nice promoted innovations like the “use of colored leg bands to distinguish individual birds,” gained the respect of her better-known peers and enjoyed a long, successful career.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/margaret-morse-nice-thought-like-a-song-sparrow-and-changed-how-scientists-understand-animal-behavior-123734">Margaret Morse Nice thought like a song sparrow and changed how scientists understand animal behavior</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>3. A medical researcher in Maoist China</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man and woman working at lab bench" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=598&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/449932/original/file-20220303-25-wxv1nj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=751&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tu Youyou in a pharmacology lab with a colleague in the 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/oct-5-2015-undated-file-photo-shows-tu-youyou-right-front-a-news-photo/491452698">Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>At the height of China’s Cultural Revolution, a young scientist named Tu Youyou headed a covert operation called Project 523 under military supervision. One of her team’s goals was to identify and systematically test substances used in traditional Chinese medicine in an effort to vanquish chloroquine-resistant malaria. </p>
<p>Emory University <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=hLDgM4QAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">historian Jia-Chen Fu</a> described how “contrary to popular assumptions that Maoist China was summarily against science and scientists, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-secret-maoist-chinese-operation-that-conquered-malaria-and-won-a-nobel-48644">Communist party-state needed the scientific elite</a> for certain political and practical purposes.”</p>
<p>Tu followed a hunch about how to extract an antimalarial compound from the qinghao or artemisia plant. By 1971, her team had successfully “obtained a nontoxic and neutral extract that was called qinghaosu or artemisinin.” In 2015, she was honored with a Nobel Prize.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-secret-maoist-chinese-operation-that-conquered-malaria-and-won-a-nobel-48644">The secret Maoist Chinese operation that conquered malaria – and won a Nobel</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>4. A mathematician who wouldn’t be diverted</h2>
<p>Not everyone gets called a “creative mathematical genius” by Albert Einstein. But Emmy Noether did.</p>
<p>Rutgers University <a href="https://sites.math.rutgers.edu/%7Etl548/">mathematician Tamar Lichter Blanks</a> wrote about the <a href="https://theconversation.com/emmy-noether-faced-sexism-and-nazism-100-years-later-her-contributions-to-ring-theory-still-influence-modern-math-163245">roadblocks Noether faced as a Jewish woman</a> who wanted to pursue a math career in early 1900s Germany. For a while, Noether supervised doctoral students without pay and taught university courses listed under the name of a male colleague.</p>
<p>All the while, she conducted her own research in theoretical physics, contributing to Einstein’s theory of relativity. Her most revolutionary work was in ring theory and is still pondered by mathematicians today.</p>
<p>Noether died less than two years after emigrating to the U.S. to escape the Nazis.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/emmy-noether-faced-sexism-and-nazism-over-100-years-later-her-contributions-to-ring-theory-still-influence-modern-math-163245">Emmy Noether faced sexism and Nazism – over 100 years later her contributions to ring theory still influence modern math</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>5. Testing nuclear theories one by one</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Forever stamp with portrait of Chien-Shiung Wu." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=944&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/383299/original/file-20210209-23-13scq0b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1187&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A 2021 U.S. postage stamp featuring Chien-Shiung Wu.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2021/0201ma-nuclear-physicist-chien-shiung-wu-to-be-honored-on-forever-stamp.htm">U.S. Postal Service</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While sometimes called the “Chinese Marie Curie” in her home country, nuclear physicist Chien-Shiung Wu is less well-known in the U.S., where she did the bulk of her work. Rutgers University-Newark <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=-x2wJigAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">physicist Xuejian Wu</a> considered Chien-Shiung Wu (no relation) “an icon” who inspired his own career path.</p>
<p>As a grad student, Wu traveled by steamship to California in 1936, where she <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-postage-stamp-honors-chien-shiung-wu-trailblazing-nuclear-physicist-154687">fell in love with atomic nuclei research</a> at UC Berkeley, home of a brand new cyclotron. She worked on the Manhattan Project during World War II.</p>
<p>Among her many accomplishments, Wu’s careful experimental work discovered what’s called parity nonconservation – that is, that a physical process and its mirror reflection are not necessarily identical. Her colleagues who focused on the theoretical side of this breakthrough won the 1957 Nobel Prize in physics, but Wu was overlooked.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-postage-stamp-honors-chien-shiung-wu-trailblazing-nuclear-physicist-154687">New postage stamp honors Chien-Shiung Wu, trailblazing nuclear physicist</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p><em>Editor’s note: This story is a roundup of articles from The Conversation’s archives.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/178473/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Discover the stories of five trailblazing women – Tharp, Nice, Tu, Noether and Wu – who worked in STEM during the 20th century.
Maggie Villiger, Senior Science + Technology Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173724
2022-01-24T13:26:05Z
2022-01-24T13:26:05Z
More women in a STEM field leads people to label it as a ‘soft science,’ according to new research
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441846/original/file-20220120-9679-19vyjxq.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=533%2C301%2C5844%2C4164&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">How seriously people take particular scientific disciplines partly depends on how many women enter them.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/large-group-of-happy-college-students-celebrating-royalty-free-image/1175414396">skynesher/E+ via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/topics/research-brief-83231">Research Brief</a> is a short take about interesting academic work.</em> </p>
<h2>The big idea</h2>
<p>One factor that influences the use of the labels “soft science” or “hard science” is gender bias, according to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104234">recent research</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=Qw6dPwUAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">my</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=_SS0alEAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">colleagues</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=SK2z4YsAAAAJ">and I</a> conducted. </p>
<p>Women’s participation varies across STEM disciplines. While women have nearly reached gender parity in biomedical sciences, they still make up <a href="https://www.computerscience.org/resources/women-in-computer-science">only about 18% of students</a> receiving undergraduate degrees in computer science, for instance.</p>
<p>In a series of experiments, we varied the information study participants read about women’s representation in fields like chemistry, sociology and biomedical sciences. We then asked them to categorize these fields as either a “soft science” or a “hard science.”</p>
<p>Across studies, participants were consistently more likely to describe a discipline as a “soft science” when they’d been led to believe that proportionally more women worked in the field. Moreover, the “soft science” label led people to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2021.104234">devalue these fields</a> – describing them as less rigorous, less trustworthy and less deserving of federal research funding.</p>
<h2>Why it matters</h2>
<p>Over the past decade, a growing movement has <a href="https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/">encouraged girls and women to pursue education and careers</a> in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM. This effort is sometimes described as a way to reduce the wage gap. </p>
<p>By encouraging women to enter high-paying fields like science, technology and engineering, advocates hope that women on average will <a href="https://www.urban.org/2016-analysis/promote-stem-grade-school-fight-wage-gap-and-grow-economy">increase their earning power relative to men</a>. Others have hoped that, as women demonstrate they can be successful in STEM, <a href="https://sciencepolicyreview.org/2020/08/reducing-gender-bias-in-stem/">sexist stereotypes about women’s ability and interest in STEM</a> will erode.</p>
<p>Our research suggests this may not be the case. Stereotypes about women and STEM persist, even in the face of evidence that women can and do productively participate in STEM fields. These stereotypes can lead people to simply devalue the fields in which women participate. In this way, even science and math can end up in the “<a href="https://internationalwim.org/how-pink-collar-jobs-have-changed-since-1940/">pink collar</a>” category of heavily female fields that are <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/low-pay-caring-industry-2014-2">often devalued and underpaid</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="man at white board, two women facing him with microscopes in foreground" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/441848/original/file-20220120-9047-15poc0z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What does a ‘scientist’ look like in your mind’s eye?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/teacher-talking-to-students-in-lab-royalty-free-image/500046159">ER Productions Limited/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What other research is being done</h2>
<p>Other research has found that explicit <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00415">“science equals men” stereotypes were weaker</a> among people who majored in science disciplines with high participation by women, like biological sciences, compared to those who majored in fields with few women, like engineering. This finding suggests that exposure to women in your own field can shift the gender stereotypes you hold. </p>
<p>But our studies more closely align with other research suggesting that, rather than reducing gender stereotyping, women’s increased participation results in the devaluation of more heavily female fields. </p>
<p>When women make up more than 25% of graduate students in a discipline, men – and to a lesser extent women – <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/003804070708000102">become less interested in pursuing that discipline</a>, and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/20/upshot/as-women-take-over-a-male-dominated-field-the-pay-drops.html">salaries tend to go down</a>. Other studies have found that the <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2008.00354.x">same job is seen as deserving a lower salary</a> when positioned in a “female field” than when it is listed in a “male field.” Together, this suggests that the presence of women, and not characteristics of the job or field, is what leads to devaluation and lower pay.</p>
<h2>What still isn’t known</h2>
<p>Participants who worked or planned to work in science were just as likely as the rest of the population to use gender as a cue to categorize soft vs. hard sciences. But in scientists, we found no connection between that tendency and their beliefs about women’s ability in science and math. That is, scientists’ levels of sexism, as measured by self-report, were unrelated to their inclination to call fields with many women “soft sciences.”</p>
<p>We don’t know how scientists and non-scientists ended up making the same connection between gender and soft science labels. It’s possible that people who work in science are just more aware of norms against expressing such gender stereotypes – meaning their self-reports are less likely to reflect their true beliefs and actually more closely match those of non-scientists. </p>
<p>But it’s also possible that something else is driving their use of the “soft science” label. For example, to our surprise, women who worked in science were more likely compared to men in science to label fields with many women as “soft sciences.” This could reflect the tendency for some women who experience sexism in their fields to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2015.12.007">distance themselves from other women</a> as a way to protect themselves from being targets of sexism.</p>
<h2>What’s next</h2>
<p>Science advocates must grapple with the fact that women’s work in scientific fields can result in fields being devalued. For society to benefit fully from the broad spectrum of scientific disciplines, advocates may need to address gender stereotypes more directly.</p>
<p>Gender stereotypes about STEM could also affect which fields talented students choose to pursue. The label of “soft science” might be a turnoff for high-achieving students who want to prove their strengths – or, conversely, students who are insecure about their abilities might avoid a major described as a “hard science.”</p>
<p>[<em>The Conversation’s science, health and technology editors pick their favorite stories.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-favorite">Weekly on Wednesdays</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173724/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alysson Light does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The proportion of women in a discipline influences how rigorous and trustworthy people rate the field overall, as well as whether they categorize a STEM field as a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ science.
Alysson Light, Assistant Professor of Psychology, University of the Sciences
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/173321
2021-12-16T13:28:19Z
2021-12-16T13:28:19Z
Surveys of scientists show women and young academics suffered most during pandemic and may face long-term career consequences
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437659/original/file-20211214-27402-1j8amls.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C201%2C6448%2C4245&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Working from home comes with many distractions.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/mother-working-from-home-with-children-in-royalty-free-image/1273890998?adppopup=true">MoMoProductions/Digital Vision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On March 6, 2020, universities across the U.S. announced systematic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/06/us/coronavirus-college-campus-closings.html">laboratory closures, social distancing policies and travel bans</a> to cope with the growing coronavirus epidemic. These actions, while prudent and necessary, had immediate negative impacts on the academic enterprise of science in the U.S. and around the world.</p>
<p>We are a team of <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DGHsTEgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">researchers</a> who <a href="https://spa.asu.edu/content/lesley-michalegko">study</a> the <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=CG9lGUgAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">role of science</a> and technology <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=AXfiRyYAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">in society</a>. We are also part of a collaborative, multi-university project, called SciOPS, that seeks to improve <a href="https://news.asu.edu/20210128-global-engagement-sciops-gives-us-look-scientists-minds">how scientists communicate with the public</a>. As the pandemic wore on, researchers began telling us about the work stoppages, data losses and other hardships they were experiencing. We felt this was important information, so we conducted two surveys to understand how the pandemic was affecting researchers.</p>
<p>The pandemic’s hardships in academia have been widespread and lasting, but our analyses revealed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00823-9">female and early career scientists faced more negative impacts</a> than other groups. These differences are likely aggravating already existing disparities and potentially altering career trajectories. The negative outcomes may last well beyond the end of the pandemic. </p>
<h2>A survey of researchers</h2>
<p>The SciOPS team conducted its first COVID-19 survey in May 2020, with a follow-up exactly a year later in May 2021. For each, we invited faculty from a random sample of 21 U.S. research universities who work in biology, engineering and biochemistry to participate in the study, and about 300 scientists responded each time. Through a series of multiple choice and open-ended questions, the surveys asked how researchers had been affected both professionally and personally by the pandemic. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A sign in a door saying that a university building is closed indefinitely." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=373&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437661/original/file-20211214-17-1mdremf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=468&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Closures of schools and labs forced many scientists to work from home.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakColorado/a2a120dd5a6d45048f24e863314e6e33/photo?Query=university%20closed%20virus%20sign&mediaType=photo&sortBy=&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=8&currentItemNo=4">AP Photo/David Zalubowski</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How the coronavirus disrupted science</h2>
<p>Our first survey found that disruptions at work and home negatively affected research activities for a vast majority of the scientists who responded. </p>
<p>On the <a href="https://www.sci-ops.org/surveys/covid-19-survey-ii-2021-impacts-on-scientific-research">research side</a>, 93% of respondents experienced university shutdowns and 88% faced lab work disruptions. Over 80% dealt with conference cancellations and travel restrictions. Some researchers also had to quickly adapt to financial issues, and this, along with other hurdles, saw many scientists delaying data collection, applying for timeline extensions or ending data collection early.</p>
<p>Challenges at <a href="https://www.sci-ops.org/surveys/covid-19-personal-impacts">home also affected scientists’ work</a>. Roughly 80% of respondents said they were unable to concentrate on research activities, 72% had anxiety about contracting COVID-19 and 36% had to manage unexpected child care responsibilities. </p>
<p>The May 2021 survey showed that a year later, not much had changed. Responses were nearly identical: 92% of scientists reported difficulties from university closures, 89% experienced lab work disruptions and 84% had collaboration disruptions that had interrupted their research over the past year.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.sci-ops.org/surveys/covid-19-survey-ii-2021-personal-impacts">Issues at home were nearly the same</a> as the year prior, too. The only major difference was that 11% percent of respondents reported coping with a family member’s illness, compared to only 3% in 2020.</p>
<p>Inevitably, these stressors all took a toll on researchers’ well-being. Nearly 60% indicated that their overall mental health and happiness had decreased because of the pandemic. This is higher than a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study that found <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm6932a1">40% of the U.S. general public were facing mental health issues</a> in June 2021. As one researcher stated, reiterating the sentiments of many others in our study: “The mental impact of lockdown affected every researcher in my lab, including me. It was far more damaging than anything else we experienced and caused huge drop-offs in productivity.” </p>
<h2>Younger researchers and female researchers faced more difficulties</h2>
<p>Some scientists felt the added stress from a lack of boundaries between home and work much more acutely than others. The unexpected rises in parental child care and virtual schooling fell most heavily on female and early career faculty. </p>
<p>In our 2020 survey, 34% percent of female scientists reported disruptions due to unexpected child care responsibilities, compared to 21% of males. Early career faculty struggled more too. Roughly 43% of assistant professors indicated unexpected child care duties caused major disruptions to their research, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00823-9">30% more than their most senior colleagues</a>. In total, nearly 50% of both female respondents and assistant professors reported an inability to concentrate on research activities, while only 29% of male colleagues and 36% of senior colleagues reported the same.</p>
<p><iframe id="6vK2B" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/6vK2B/8/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These unequal burdens barely changed between 2020 and 2021. If anything, issues got worse for female scientists. Many reported other unanticipated complications such as management of other family members’ mental health, divorce and limited space at home. </p>
<p>Given the extra burdens young researchers and female researchers are facing, it’s no surprise their work suffered. Other research has shown that during the pandemic, female scientists had <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0921-y">significantly less time to work on research</a>. Many were not able to meet deadlines, and so they <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663252">submitted fewer manuscripts</a> compared to pre-pandemic levels. </p>
<p>Unsurprisingly, these impacts on productivity were <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.663252">even worse for women with children</a>. Research has shown that home disruptions can cascade over time and result in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0921-y">delayed promotions and tenure</a>. Even pre-COVID-19, working mothers in academia left their respective fields at much higher rates than their male colleagues, and this trend was <a href="https://doi.org/10.1513/AnnalsATS.202006-589IP">further amplified by the pandemic</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A screen with many faces on it participating in a video conference." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/437662/original/file-20211214-27-11jx78v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Researchers figured out ways to work around challenges posed by the pandemic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/social-teleconference-during-covid-19-royalty-free-image/1217489268?adppopup=true">GabrielPevide/E+ via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Adapting to the new world</h2>
<p>Undoubtedly, the pandemic has had devastating effects on academic research and those who do it. But hidden among the gloom of our surveys were a few bright spots that highlight the resilience of the scientific community.</p>
<p>In our 2020 survey, 37% of scientists said that they developed new research topics to pursue, and 22% developed new collaborations. Virtual meetings proved to be a valuable transition for some. As one researcher noted, “Through regular videoconference discussions, new and long-distance collaborations have been initiated and maintained between four labs in the U.S. This would have been never envisaged prior to the Zoom era.”</p>
<p>The pandemic highlighted existing problems within science but also offered lessons to be learned. Many in academia want to avoid <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/views/2021/02/10/without-intentional-interventions-pandemic-will-make-higher-education-less-diverse">deepening existing inequities in the scientific workforce</a>, and studies have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001100">outlined ways to do this</a>. By implementing programs such as tenure clock extensions, advocating for affordable child care and allocating funds to support early career women researchers, the scientific community could enable broader participation, capacity and production for all scientists. </p>
<p>Looking forward, we believe it is critically important for universities and research funders to proactively address the continuing challenges posed by the pandemic, particularly for female and early career faculty. With so much in flux, there is an opportunity to change and improve a system that wasn’t working for a lot of people prior to the pandemic.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=weekly&source=inline-weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/173321/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Many scientists stuck at home during university closures dealt with increased domestic responsibilities. But some groups had it worse than others.
Lesley Michalegko, Research Project Manager of Public Policy, Arizona State University
Eric Welch, Professor & Director, Center for Science, Technology & Environmental Policy Studies, Arizona State University
Mary K. Feeney, Professor and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs, Arizona State University
Timothy P. Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Public Administration, University of Illinois Chicago
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169742
2021-10-15T03:29:50Z
2021-10-15T03:29:50Z
Caring or killing: harmful gender stereotypes kick in early — and may be keeping girls away from STEM
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426589/original/file-20211014-19-1u4h3a1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=12%2C6%2C4304%2C2679&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Patricia Prudente / Unsplash</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Gender stereotypes begin in early childhood. Bright pink “toys for girls” and blue “toys for boys” are sold on store shelves around the world. </p>
<p>In the boys’ section you’ll find <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2013/02/when-are-science-toys-just-boys">science, construction and warfare toys</a> — perhaps a motorised robot, or a telescope. In the girls’ lane you’ll get toys related to cleaning, prams, dolls, kitchens, makeup, jewellery and crafts. </p>
<p>Our research, <a href="https://bera-journals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/berj.3767">published this week</a>, shows by the early years of primary school, gender stereotypes from a variety of sources have already influenced children — leading them to aspire to “traditional” male and female vocations. </p>
<p>This flows into <a href="https://www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk/why-it-matters/">lower numbers of girls</a> taking STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects at school. In turn, this means fewer women are going on to work in the sciences. Women make up only <a href="https://www.aauw.org/resources/research/the-stem-gap/">28% of the STEM workforce</a>. </p>
<p>The gender gap is particularly high in the fastest-growing and highest-paid jobs of the future, such as computer science and engineering. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/we-must-include-more-women-in-physics-it-would-help-the-whole-of-humanity-165096">We must include more women in physics — it would help the whole of humanity</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Gender-related aspirations are concerning</h2>
<p>We spoke with 332 students (176 girls and 156 boys) from 14 schools and found 7- and 8-year-old children have already made up their minds about what jobs they want in the future. Girls overwhelmingly aspire to traditionally “feminine” jobs, while boys are attracted to “masculine” pursuits.</p>
<p>For example, the top three choices for boys include careers in professional sports, STEM-related jobs, and policing or defence. Meanwhile, girls either want to be teachers, work with animals, or pursue a career in the arts.</p>
<iframe title="Year 3 students' career aspirations" aria-label="table" id="datawrapper-chart-SRoxP" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/SRoxP/3/" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" style="border: none;" width="100%" height="595"></iframe>
<p>There are obvious patterns in girls’ and boys’ career choices which can be linked to gender stereotypes. Many girls talked about “feminine” ideas such as caring or helping others. They told us:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to work in a zoo because I want to take care of the animals — <strong>Sophie</strong></p>
<p>I want to be a nurse because I want to help people if they are hurt and take care of my Dad, and other people — <strong>Kate</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>They also talked about love, another traditionally “feminine” ideal.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to be a mother because I love babies — <strong>Maddi</strong></p>
<p>I want to be a teacher because I love little kids — <strong>Sara</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>On the other hand, the boys’ reasoning for their career choices heavily featured “masculine” themes, such as making money and having power over others. For instance, they wanted to work in the police force because:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I get to arrest people — <strong>Dan</strong></p>
<p>I want to shoot guns — <strong>Harry</strong></p>
<p>I can put people under arrest — <strong>Josh</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Or they wanted jobs that highlighted traditionally masculine attributes such as strength, dominance and physicality.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>I want to be an assassin so I can kill people — <strong>Matt</strong></p>
<p>I want to be an army commando because you can shoot tanks — <strong>Ben</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Clearly, boys’ and girls’ career <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/Dream%20Jobs%20Teenagers'%20Career%20Aspirations%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20Work.pdf">aspirations</a> are very different, even at this young age. And young people’s career aspirations are a good indication of <a href="https://www.oecd.org/education/career-readiness/Dream%20Jobs%20Teenagers'%20Career%20Aspirations%20and%20the%20Future%20of%20Work.pdf">job trajectories as they transition to adulthood</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426134/original/file-20211013-23-12am1z6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">There’s a noticeable link between young boys’ reported career aspirations, and the themes they’re exposed to through the toys that target them.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Quintal/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>But it’s not just about gender</h2>
<p>We also found differences in opinion that seemed to correlate with <a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0001699318817594">social class</a>. Boys from affluent school communities (30%) aspired to STEM careers more than boys from disadvantaged school communities (8%), while girls from disadvantaged school communities had a greater desire to “help” and “care”. </p>
<p>These values can be <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01053/full">more important for</a> female students whose families have more traditional work- and family-related gender beliefs. If these girls go into STEM, they may go into the medical and life sciences, rather than fields such as physics or engineering, which are viewed by society as masculine.</p>
<p>Our findings help explain how gender-related trends continue to be visible in workplaces and industries, and why men from more socioeconomically advantaged communities are more likely to become employed in STEM jobs. </p>
<h2>Challenging old and outdated ideas</h2>
<p>We have to challenge problematic beliefs about the roles of men and women in society. And we have to challenge them early. One way to do this is to end the sale of gendered and stereotypical toys, which research has shown can give young children the <a href="https://www.naeyc.org/resources/topics/play/gender-typed-toys">wrong ideas about gender roles</a>.</p>
<p>Some stores and toy companies are finally under pressure to make this change.
Due to a law passed last month, department stores in <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/california-law-gender-neutral-toy-displays-department-stores/">California are now required</a> to display childrens’ products in a designated gender-neutral section. </p>
<p>Although the law stopped short of entirely outlawing separate sections for “boys” and “girls”, it makes California the first US state to work against reinforcing harmful gender stereotypes. </p>
<p>If you’re thinking there are plenty of gender-neutral toys available already — hello, LEGO? — think again. <a href="https://www.kiro7.com/news/trending/lego-remove-gender-bias-products/XR5O7QN2TRESJCOZKK6IJLHGG4/#:%7E:text=Researchers%20with%20Geena%20Davis%20Institute,with%20the%20brick%20building%20system.">One study</a> found 76% of parents said they would encourage their son to play with LEGO, but only 24% would recommend it to a daughter. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426133/original/file-20211013-27-l097nx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">While LEGO is often touted as a gender-neutral toy for kids, the reality is many people still associate it with play for boys.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ryan Quintal/Unsplash</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>LEGO, the world’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/lego-builds-on-its-position-as-worlds-no-1-toy-maker-11632843755">largest toy-maker</a>, this week announced its future products and marketing will be free of <a href="https://www.lego.com/en-us/aboutus/news/2021/september/lego-ready-for-girls-campaign">gender bias and harmful stereotypes</a>. </p>
<p>The company’s recently launched Ready for Girls campaign will celebrate girls who rebuild the world through creative problem-solving. This is a start. Hopefully more companies will follow suit. </p>
<p>We should stop telling children that what constitutes acceptable play depends on their gender. Let’s let girls be scientist and boys be carers, if that’s what they want. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/legos-return-to-gender-neutral-toys-is-good-news-for-all-kids-our-research-review-shows-why-169722">Lego's return to gender neutral toys is good news for all kids. Our research review shows why</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169742/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Laura Scholes receives funding from the Australian Research Council </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah McDonald does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We spoke to 332 Year 3 students about what they want to be when they grow up. Some responses raised alarms.
Laura Scholes, Associate Professor and ARC Principal Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University
Sarah McDonald, Research Associate, University of South Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167886
2021-10-14T19:11:28Z
2021-10-14T19:11:28Z
Friday essay: invisible no more – putting the first women archaeologists of the Pacific back on the map
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426056/original/file-20211012-25-l4z01e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C4%2C768%2C758&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Mary Elizabeth Shutler in Vanuatu, in the1960s. Permitted to join the first archaeological expedition to New Caledonia in 1952 as a 'voluntary assistant', she was the only French speaker and chief interlocuter with the Kanak people.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Family archives, reproduced with the kind authorisation of John Shutler & Susan Arter.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>History is the study of “present traces of the past”, as historian <a href="https://history.indiana.edu/faculty_staff/faculty/allen_judith.html">Judith Allen</a> once put it. In our <a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/projects/able/pacific-matildas-finding-the-women-in-the-history-of-pacific-archaeology">Pacific Matildas</a> research project, we are recovering the hidden traces of the first female archaeologists in the Pacific.</p>
<p>Historians of western science have well documented the “Matilda effect”: how female scientists <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/unheralded-women-scientists-finally-getting-their-due-180973082/">were written out of history</a>, with <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-have-been-written-out-of-science-history-time-to-put-them-back-107752">barriers</a> to accessing education, qualifications and professional roles. </p>
<p>Often, women had to practice science via alternative pathways (such as by <a href="https://www.awaws.org/history-of-women-in-ancient-world-studies/category/adele-de-dombasle**">making scientific illustrations</a>). This rendered them invisible in the records and/or concealed by the “halo effect” – where prominent scientists (typically older, white men) were credited for the work of less recognised collaborators.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/women-have-been-written-out-of-science-history-time-to-put-them-back-107752">Women have been written out of science history – time to put them back</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Archaeology, the discipline that uses material remains of the past to trace human history, has long been associated with the image of a solitary masculine adventurer rather than a <a href="https://www.awaws.org/history-of-women-in-ancient-world-studies/category/susanna-davies">woman with a trowel in hand</a>. The <a href="https://trowelblazers.com/">TrowelBlazers</a> project, for instance, seeks to remedy this by celebrating women archaeologists, palaeontologists and geologists. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.uwa.edu.au/projects/able/pacific-matildas-finding-the-women-in-the-history-of-pacific-archaeology">Pacific Matildas</a> focuses on our own region, Oceania, to tell the stories of the first women in the field, to understand the barriers they faced and highlight their legacies.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426073/original/file-20211012-25-1gz5v0m.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=501&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Hienghene area far to the north of Noumea. Pacific Matildas focuses on women archaeologists of Oceania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">James Shrimpton/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Our <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1DgkJk3_vSSFjjo53pWHzH4ETHKLhDa6W&ll=-7.0837687501730375%2C164.85117095045996&z=4">interactive map</a> locates the research conducted by 50 women identified as Pacific Matildas: the first women to participate in the development of archaeology as a science. </p>
<p>Our timeline starts with those rare women who took part in European voyages of exploration. It ends with the exponential entry of women into professional archaeology after the 1960s. </p>
<p>The earliest we know of was <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rose_de_Freycinet">Rose de Freycinet</a> who accompanied her husband, Louis de Freycinet on an expedition around the world in 1817-1820. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=546&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426057/original/file-20211012-17-1u5zu35.PNG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=686&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rose de Freycinet by Jacques Arago.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Source gallica.bnf.fr / Bibliothèque nationale de France</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Rose was the first woman to record her circumnavigation, writing down her observations of Indigenous groups in places such as Australia, The Mariana Islands and Hawai'i, including details on their customs and material culture. Although not directly related to archaeology (the discipline was just emerging), her writings are important as the first direct source voicing a female, western view of the Pacific.</p>
<p>The Pacific Matildas include lesser known researchers such as Mā'ohi expert Aurora Tetunui Natua, who collaborated with many 20th century western archaeologists in French Polynesia. They also include more recently recognised scholars, such as New Zealand’s <a href="https://www.tepapa.govt.nz/about/te-papa-press/our-authors/janet-davidson-biography-and-interview">Janet Davidson</a>, renowned for her pioneering research across many Pacific islands and her work in NZ cultural heritage. </p>
<p>As well as putting the women back on the Pacific map, our <a href="https://www.zotero.org/groups/4397547/pacific_matildas_bibliographic_database">bibliographic catalogue</a> compiles some 2,000 written works produced by or through the labour of these women, so their scientific legacy can be rediscovered, analysed and referenced. Importantly, we include not just English references but some in French, German, Spanish and Tahitian.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=392&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426118/original/file-20211013-17-bua4hx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Rose de Freycinet in front of the tent to the right of the observatory, Shark Bay, Western Australia in 1819; reproductions of original watercolours painted on the Freycinet voyage by Jacques Arago and Alphonse Pellion.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Pacific Matildas are not always listed as authors of these works. We have sometimes had to identify their contributions by reading against the grain: finding traces of their essential roles in the acknowledgements or prefaces of publications; in unpublished reports and in archival documents such as photographs, field-notes, journals and letters.</p>
<p>One such example is <a href="https://troca.unc.nc/maurice-leenhardt-1878-1954-contextes-et-heritages/">Jeanne Michel Leenhardt</a>, an indispensable collaborator in New Caledonia to both her famous pastor-anthropologist husband Maurice Leenhardt and early archaeologist Marius Archambault. </p>
<p>Jeanne Michel was born in 1881 in France and well educated. Her father was an influential art historian and curator at the Louvre Museum; her mother was born and raised in Hawai'i as the daughter of the minister of foreign affairs. Jeanne Michel married Leenhardt in 1902, eager to embrace the missionary vocation. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=344&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426313/original/file-20211013-15-1ks2p4o.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=432&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Jeanne Michel and Maurice Leenhardt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Association des amis de Henry et Stella Corbin</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>During almost two decades living in New Caledonia, she took an active part in her husband’s research. She gathered ethnographical information – notably from women – discussed his ideas and edited his writings. These writings also considered the island’s prehistory in collaboration with Archambault’s work. </p>
<p>Back in France, she continued to work with her husband, attending scientific meetings and conferences with him. Jeanne Leenhardt is never officially mentioned as a collaborator in her husband’s writings. But historical archives, family letters and other accounts help to document her essential role.</p>
<p>Interestingly, women who succeeded in practicing as archaeologists or anthropologists, often did have their skills acknowledged and were well respected by their contemporary male peers. While the latter had stable professional positions, the women mostly had to navigate insecure positions, working as “assistants” or “volunteers”. Thus the legacy of their research has faded quickly compared to the men of the time.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/hidden-women-of-history-ennigaldi-nanna-curator-of-the-worlds-first-museum-116431">Hidden women of history: Ennigaldi-Nanna, curator of the world's first museum</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Beyond ‘founding fathers’</h2>
<p>The Pacific Matildas map is a striking reminder that all along, women were actively present in the field. But we, the younger generations of Pacific archaeologists and historians of science, have been blinded when it comes to seeing them and their contributions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=308&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426058/original/file-20211012-17-1diifx2.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A screenshot of the Pacific Matildas map.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>For instance, when studying Pacific archaeology in the 2000s (in France and Australia), we would hear about “founding fathers”. This included Edward Gifford, leader of archaeological expeditions in the 1940s and 1950s in the Pacific southwest, attached to the discovery of Lapita (first settlement) sites dating back 3,000 years; José Garanger, who started the only course in France on Pacific prehistory in the 1970s; Te Rangi Hiroa, Maori scholar of Polynesian cultural history and director of the influential Bishop Museum in Hawai'i in the 1930s, or Ralph Linton, first PhD in Pacific archaeology in 1925, at Harvard.</p>
<p>We learnt a lot less about the successful academic career of Mary Elizabeth Shutler, who played a critical role in the first professional archaeological expedition (led by Gifford) to New Caledonia in 1952. Born in California as Mary Elizabeth Hall, she began studying anthropology at UC Berkeley in the late 1940s. There, she met and married fellow student Richard. When he was invited to join the Gifford expedition, she was able to join as a “voluntary assistant” because she spoke French. </p>
<p>In fact, she was the only French-speaking team member, becoming the main interlocutor to local Kanak fieldworkers and expedition guides. She gathered oral traditions and cultural information related to archaeological sites they excavated – including, possibly, the name of the famous <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapita_culture">Lapita (Xapeta’a) site</a>, on the west coast of New Caledonia’s Grande Terre.</p>
<p>Despite this, and historical sources clearly demonstrating her active role in archaeological fieldwork, the monograph for the expedition is authored by Edward Gifford and Richard Shutler.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426078/original/file-20211012-25-9eons6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=514&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An elaborately decorated pot found during an archaeological dig in Vanuatu, shedding light on Lapita settlement and society in the region.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Colin MacGregor/AAP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Mary Elizabeth Shutler then pioneered ethno-archaeological studies of pottery in Vanuatu. She led archaeological excavations and analyses with her husband in the archipelago, while studying to obtain her PhD in 1967 and raising three children. Later, in the US, she went on to a successful academic career in a number of American universities.</p>
<h2>Opening doors</h2>
<p>Similarly, few would be familiar with the work of Tahiti’s <a href="http://www.hiroa.pf/2020/04/hiroa-n151-culture-bouge-larcheologie-a-lhonneur/">Aurora Germaine Tetunui Natua</a>, who coordinated fieldwork access for archaeological research conducted in French Polynesia between the 1950s and 1980s – including some led by “founding fathers”.</p>
<p>Born in Papeʻete in 1909 in a respected scholarly local family with strong links to Tahiti and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maupiti">Maupiti</a>, Natua was an early local collaborator to western scientists. She spent some time in France – one of the first Pacific islanders to join the newly formed Society of Oceanists in 1945 – and became archivist-librarian then curator of the Museum of Tahiti, a position she held for more than 30 years.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426083/original/file-20211013-27-1a4of7i.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Taputapuātea Marae of Raiatea, French Polynesia, a UNESCO World Heritage site.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Her essential collaboration in anthropological and archaeological research conducted in French Polynesia is traceable in a long trail of acknowledgements and references found in several published and unpublished works. Historical sources show she was excavating with the scientists and present in the archaeological operations from the very beginning – as negotiator, translator and supervisor of the land access. </p>
<p>She was there too, in the final stages of conservation and analysis of the artefacts discovered – as a recognised scholar, librarian and curator. For western researchers, she was literally a key person: opening (or closing) the doors to Polynesian archaeology.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-stories-of-tupaia-and-omai-and-their-vital-role-as-captain-cooks-unsung-shipmates-126674">The stories of Tupaia and Omai and their vital role as Captain Cook's unsung shipmates</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Pioneers</h2>
<p>As far as we know, the second and third PhDs ever earned in Pacific archaeology were obtained by women. One of them was Margarete Schurig. We know little about her as she tragically died soon after completing her doctoral dissertation on Pacific pottery in 1926 at the University of Leipzig. </p>
<p>The other was <a href="https://www.guampedia.com/laura-thompson/">Laura Maud Thompson</a> who completed her PhD on “Native trade in southeast New Guinea” in 1933 at UC Berkeley. Thompson was born in Hawai'i in 1905 to English and American parents. She studied anthropology on the mainland in the 1920s – among the very first women to do so.</p>
<p>In her memoirs, she recounted the prejudices she faced as a woman. She could not enrol in Harvard as women were not admitted. She left Radcliffe, where she was studying as a graduate, after a professor of Oceania studies requested she sit in the hall rather than the lecture room where she might “distract” the men.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=375&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426085/original/file-20211013-25-fkdmwb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=471&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Bishop Museum, Hawai'i, where Thompson worked.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Despite this, she worked as assistant ethnologist at Hawaii’s Bishop Museum on archaeological collections from the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean. She undertook fieldwork in Fiji and then the Mariana, publishing her archaeological results and ethnological analyses. The rest of her long and successful career shifted towards more socio-cultural and applied anthropology, in North America and Guam, where she developed strong relationships with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chamorro_people">CHamoru people</a>. </p>
<p>Thompson’s research on Guam was based on analysis of collections and field-notes gathered by husband and wife team Hans and <a href="https://www.guampedia.com/gertrude-costenoble-hornbostel/">Gertrude Hornbostel</a>. Born in Switzerland in 1893, Gertrude had moved with her family to Guam at the age of eleven. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426317/original/file-20211013-21-d4p81.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Traces of ancient buildings on the island of Guam.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There, she learned to speak fluent CHamoru and became known as “Trudis Alemån” – a name she later published under. Gertrude met and married Hans in 1914, assisting him with his work as an anthropologist. She collected, recorded and translated CHamoru stories, songs and customs, producing illustrations of important archaeological sites and artefacts.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/where-were-all-the-women-in-the-stone-age-73374">Where were all the women in the Stone Age?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘Wives’</h2>
<p>Many “wives” of noted archaeologists took part in archaeological excavations, data analysis, and monograph writing, sometimes only to have their contributions mentioned in the acknowledgement section.</p>
<p>Take the research of <a href="https://www.bowers.org/index.php/collection/collection-blog/the-osborne-collection-to-begin-a-biography">Douglas and Carolyn Osborne</a> in the mid-20th century. The pair met as graduate archaeology students at the University of New Mexico, marrying in 1941. From 1954-55, they conducted some of the first systematic surveys and excavations of prehistoric sites in Palau. Carolyn is not a co-author of the seminal 1966 publication, <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Archaeology-Palau-Islands-Intensive-Survey/dp/0910240582">The archaeology of the Palau Islands, an intensive survey</a>. Instead her role and contributions are simply acknowledged by her husband. He writes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The work of laboratory analysis and recording, including shard analysis, cataloguing, photographic developing, and negative filing was all done by my wife, Carolyn. It would not have been possible for me to do the extensive survey work that was accomplished had I not had my keen and well-trained partner with me. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>What is clear is that Carolyn’s involvement was crucial to the success of the research. What is less clear is how she ended up absent as co-author of a work for which she was largely responsible. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=732&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426065/original/file-20211012-20-2k5999.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=920&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Katherine Routledge, circa 1919.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even the work of one of the best known, trailblazing field archaeologists, Katherine Routledge, in Rapa Nui (Easter Island) has not been properly considered in all its importance. In 1914, Routledge, a British archaeologist and anthropologist, was among the earliest to conduct planned archaeological excavations in the Pacific. </p>
<p>Her legacy was under-explored until archaeologist <a href="https://www.eisp.org/2112/">Jo Anne Van Tilburg</a> wrote a 2003 book about her, examining her unpublished field-notes and other archives.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-truth-about-easter-island-a-sustainable-society-has-been-falsely-blamed-for-its-own-demise-85563">The truth about Easter Island: a sustainable society has been falsely blamed for its own demise</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>The intellectual context for Routledge’s expedition, the field and excavation methods applied, the complex relationships established with the Rapa Nui community and the results of her work – notably her conclusions that the large statues, mo'ai, were indeed linked to the past of the Indigenous people of the island (and not to a mysterious civilisation) – still needs to be integrated into the general narratives about the history of Pacific archaeology. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/426086/original/file-20211013-18-1z80u3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mo'ai statues in the Rano Raraku Volcano in Easter Island, Rapa Nui National Park, Chile.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>There are many more stories to tell about the Pacific Matildas. More often than not, these open doors to even more hidden histories – especially those of Pasifika people who played an instrumental role in the work of early archaeologists. </p>
<p>Historians are <a href="https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/ex-libris-universum/more-inclusive-narrative-physics-history-0">gathering increasing evidence</a> that “minority” groups found ingenious alternative ways to participate in the development of science. Yet we cannot ignore the intersectionality of various factors of oppression – typically race, class, gender and complex colonial relationships – which made it harder for some people to do so.</p>
<p>That’s why it is important to continue fighting discrimination and supporting diversity in scientific research. One of the best tools we have is to talk loudly about the figures, such as these women, who played an instrumental role in building our scientific knowledge of the world. For too long they have remained hidden behind “founding fathers”.</p>
<p><em>The Matildas were identified as “women” mainly by their collaborators and the dominant social structures around them, which might not always correspond to their own chosen gender identity, a complex matter we <a href="https://www.archaeologybulletin.org/articles/10.5334/bha-656/">acknowledge</a>.</em> </p>
<p><em>Access The Pacific Matildas Bibliographic <a href="https://www.zotero.org/groups/4397547/pacific_matildas_bibliographic_database">Database</a> (© India Ella Dilkes-Hall and Emilie Dotte-Sarout, 2021) and The Pacific Matildas Geographical <a href="https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1DgkJk3_vSSFjjo53pWHzH4ETHKLhDa6W&ll=-7.0837687501730375%2C164.85117095045996&z=4">Visualisation</a> (© India Ella Dilkes-Hall, 2021).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/167886/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emilie Dotte-Sarout receives funding from The Australian Research Council.
She is WA hub leader for the Australian-French Association for Research and Innovation (AFRAN) Incorporated Association and received a joint PhD from the Sorbonne University and the Australian National University</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr India Ella Dilkes-Hall receives funding from the Forrest Foundation as a Prospect Fellow.</span></em></p>
‘Wives’, volunteers, assistants: the vital contribution of women archaeologists has long been underplayed, if not erased. A new project uncovers trailblazers in the Pacific.
Emilie Dotte-Sarout, ARC DECRA research fellow, The University of Western Australia
India Ella Dilkes-Hall, Forrest Foundation Prospect Fellow, The University of Western Australia
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/169493
2021-10-08T12:27:11Z
2021-10-08T12:27:11Z
None of the 2021 science Nobel laureates are women – here’s why men still dominate STEM award winning
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/425281/original/file-20211007-18946-pf7buf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1223%2C321%2C7020%2C5166&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Frances Arnold received the 2018 Nobel Prize in Chemistry.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://nobelprize.qbank.se/mb/?h=7f34a741c65f2309fcc548afd9fd944e&_ga=2.87363736.1458753097.1633524725-438278705.1633524725">© Nobel Media. Photo: Alexander Mahmoud</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>All of the 2021 Nobel Prizes in science were awarded to men. </p>
<p>That’s a return to business as usual after a couple of good years for female laureates. In 2020, <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/charpentier/facts/">Emmanuelle Charpentier</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2020/doudna/facts/">Jennifer Doudna</a> won the chemistry prize for their work on the CRISPR gene editing system, and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2020/ghez/facts/">Andrea Ghez</a> shared in the physics prize for her discovery of a supermassive black hole.</p>
<p>2019 was another year of all male laureates, after <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/2018/arnold/facts/">biochemical engineer Frances Arnold</a> won in 2018 for chemistry and Donna Strickland received the <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/2018/strickland/facts/">2018 Nobel Prize in physics</a>. </p>
<p>Strickland and Ghez were only the third and fourth female physicists to get a Nobel, following <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/facts/">Marie Curie in 1903</a> and <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1963/mayer/facts/">Maria Goeppert-Mayer 60 years later</a>. When asked how that felt, Strickland noted that at first it was surprising to realize so few women had won the award: “But, I mean, I do live in a world of mostly men, so seeing mostly men <a href="https://www.npr.org/2018/10/02/653779921/donna-strickland-becomes-first-woman-in-more-than-50-years-to-win-physics-nobel-">doesn’t really ever surprise me either</a>.”</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.pri.org/stories/2019-10-09/only-20-nobels-sciences-have-gone-women-why">rarity of female Nobel laureates</a> raises questions about women’s exclusion from education and careers in science and the <a href="https://thebestschools.org/magazine/brilliant-woman-greedy-men/">undervaluing of women’s contributions on science teams</a>. Women researchers have come a long way over the past century, but there’s overwhelming evidence that women remain underrepresented in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.</p>
<p>Studies have shown that those women who persist in these careers face explicit and implicit barriers to advancement. Bias is most intense in fields that are dominated by men, where women lack a critical mass of representation and are often viewed as tokens or outsiders. This bias is even more intense for transgender women and nonbinary individuals.</p>
<p>As things are getting better in terms of equal representation, what still holds women back in the lab, in leadership and as award winners?</p>
<h2>Good news at the start of the pipeline</h2>
<p>Traditional stereotypes hold that women “don’t like math” and “aren’t good at science.” Both <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/03/both-genders-think-women-are-bad-basic-math">men and women report these viewpoints</a>, but researchers have <a href="https://www.apa.org/action/resources/research-in-action/share.aspx">empirically disputed them</a>. Studies show that girls and women avoid STEM education not because of cognitive inability, but because of early exposure and experience with STEM, educational policy, cultural context, stereotypes and a lack of exposure to role models. </p>
<p>For the past several decades, efforts to improve the representation of women in STEM fields have focused on countering these stereotypes with <a href="http://www.apsbridgeprogram.org/igen/">educational reforms</a> and <a href="https://girlswhocode.com/">individual</a> <a href="https://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=5383">programs</a> that can increase the number of girls entering and staying in what’s been called the STEM pipeline – the path from K-12 to college and postgraduate training.</p>
<p><iframe id="qE27X" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/qE27X/2/" height="400px" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p>These approaches are working. Women are increasingly likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2012002908">express an interest in STEM careers and pursue STEM majors</a> in college. Women now make up half or more of workers in psychology and social sciences and are increasingly represented in the scientific workforce, though computer and mathematical sciences are an exception. </p>
<p>According to the American Institute of Physics, women earn about 20% of bachelor’s degrees and 18% of Ph.D.s in physics, <a href="https://www.aip.org/taxonomy/term/155">an increase from 1975</a> when women earned 10% of bachelor’s degrees and 5% of Ph.D.s in physics.</p>
<p>More women are graduating with STEM Ph.D.s and earning faculty positions. But they encounter glass cliffs and ceilings as they advance through their academic careers.</p>
<h2>What’s not working for women</h2>
<p>Women face a number of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.21.080195.000401">structural and institutional barriers</a> in academic STEM careers.</p>
<p>In addition to issues related to the gender pay gap, the structure of academic science often makes it difficult for women to <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781135943974">get ahead in the workplace</a> and to balance work and life commitments. Bench science can require years of dedicated time in a laboratory. The strictures of the tenure-track process can make maintaining work-life balance, responding to family obligations and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-todays-long-stem-postdoc-positions-are-effectively-anti-mother-51550">having children</a> or taking family leave difficult, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711417730">if not impossible</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, working in male-dominated workplaces can <a href="https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.so.21.080195.000401">leave women feeling isolated</a>, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2777808">perceived as tokens</a> and susceptible to <a href="https://www.nap.edu/catalog/24994/sexual-harassment-of-women-climate-culture-and-consequences-in-academic">harassment</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1010344929577">Women often are excluded</a> from networking opportunities and social events, left to feel they’re outside the culture of the lab, the academic department and the field.</p>
<p>When women lack a critical mass in a workplace – making up about 15% or more of workers – they are <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2884712">less empowered to advocate for themselves</a> and more likely to be perceived as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1999.tb08353.x">a minority group and an exception</a>. When in this minority position, women are more likely to be pressured to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-017-9454-2">take on extra service</a> as tokens on committees or <a href="https://www.chronicle.com/article/Ghost-Advising/242729">mentors to female graduate students</a>.</p>
<p>With fewer female colleagues, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243917735900">women are less likely</a> to build relationships with female collaborators and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-010-0256-y">support and advice networks</a>. This isolation can be exacerbated when women are unable to participate in work events or <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2018/02/07/conferences-should-be-more-family-friendly-women-scholars-children-opinion">attend conferences because of family or child care</a> responsibilities, and because of an inability to use research funds to reimburse child care.</p>
<p>Universities, <a href="https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2002/10000/Increasing_Women_s_Leadership_in_Academic.23.aspx">professional associations</a> and federal funders have <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20225">worked to address a variety</a> of these structural barriers. Efforts include creating family-friendly policies, increasing transparency in salary reporting, enforcing Title IX protections, providing mentoring and support programs for women scientists, protecting research time for women scientists and targeting women for hiring, research support and advancement. These programs have had mixed results. </p>
<p>For example, research indicates that family-friendly policies such as leave and onsite child care <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/scipol/scu006">can exacerbate gender inequity</a>, resulting in increased research productivity for men and increased teaching and service obligations for women.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=406&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/239534/original/file-20181005-72103-13n5zz2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=510&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">People haven’t really updated their mental images of what a scientist looks like since Wilhelm Roentgen won the first physics Nobel in 1901.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://wellcomecollection.org/works/sftaf5z8">Wellcome Collection</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<h2>Implicit biases about who does science</h2>
<p>All of us – the general public, the media, university employees, students and professors – have <a href="https://theconversation.com/most-people-think-man-when-they-think-scientist-how-can-we-kill-the-stereotype-42393">ideas of what a scientist</a> and a Nobel Prize winner look like. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.13039">That image</a> is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1949-8594.2002.tb18217.x">predominantly male, white and older</a> – which makes sense given 96% of the science Nobel Prize winners have been men.</p>
<p>This is an example of an <a href="https://www.pbs.org/video/pov-implicit-bias-peanut-butter-jelly-and-racism/">implicit bias</a>: one of the unconscious, involuntary, natural, unavoidable assumptions that all of us – men and women – form about the world. People make decisions <a href="https://theconversation.com/measuring-the-implicit-biases-we-may-not-even-be-aware-we-have-74912">based on subconscious assumptions, preferences and stereotypes</a> – sometimes even when they are counter to their explicitly held beliefs.</p>
<p>Research shows that an implicit bias against women <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/what-a-scientist-looks-like/">as experts and academic scientists</a> is pervasive. It manifests itself by valuing, acknowledging and rewarding men’s scholarship over women’s scholarship. </p>
<p>Implicit bias can work against women’s hiring, advancement and recognition of their work. For instance, women seeking academic jobs are more likely to be viewed and judged based on <a href="https://www.aeaweb.org/conference/2018/preliminary/paper/nZ24K7b2">personal information and physical appearance</a>. Letters of recommendation for women are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-018-9541-1">more likely to raise doubts</a> and use language that results in negative career outcomes.</p>
<p>Implicit bias can affect women’s ability to publish research findings and gain recognition for that work. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/2378023117738903">Men cite their own papers 56% more</a> than women do. Known as the “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711435830">Matilda Effect</a>,” there is a gender gap in recognition, award-winning and <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/08/16/new-research-shows-extent-gender-gap-citations">citations</a>. </p>
<p>Women’s research is less likely to be cited by others, and their <a href="https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/R7AQT1">ideas are more likely to be attributed to men</a>. Women’s solo-authored research takes <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/04/20/study-finds-women-economics-write-papers-are-more-readable-face-longer-publication">twice as long</a> to move through the review process. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-018-06678-6">Women are underrepresented</a> in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.12950">journal editorships</a>, as senior scholars and lead authors, and as peer reviewers. This marginalization in research gatekeeping positions works against the promotion of women’s research.</p>
<p>When a woman becomes a world-class scientist, implicit bias works <a href="https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.00739-17">against the likelihood</a> that she will be <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/12/women-are-invited-to-give-fewer-talks-than-men-at-top-us-universities/548657/">invited as a keynote or guest speaker</a> to share her research findings, thus <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12198">lowering both her visibility in the field</a> and the likelihood that she will be <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312711435830">nominated for awards</a>. This gender imbalance is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S1049096517000580">notable in how infrequently</a> <a href="https://www.thestar.com/opinion/public_editor/2017/11/17/we-need-more-womens-voices-in-the-news.html">women experts</a> are <a href="https://www.poynter.org/news/lack-female-sources-ny-times-front-page-stories-highlights-need-change">quoted in news stories</a> on most topics.</p>
<p>Women scientists are afforded less of the respect and recognition that should come with their accomplishments. Research shows that when people talk about male scientists and experts, they’re more likely to use their surnames and more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1805284115">refer to women by their first names</a>. </p>
<p>Why does this matter? Because experiments show that individuals referred to by their surnames are more likely to be viewed as famous and eminent. In fact, one study found that calling scientists by their last names led people to consider them 14% more deserving of a National Science Foundation career award.</p>
<p>Seeing men as prize winners has been the history of science, but it’s not all bad news. Recent research finds that in the biomedical sciences, women are making significant gains in winning more awards, though on average these awards are typically <a href="https://hbr.org/2019/02/research-women-are-winning-more-scientific-prizes-but-men-still-win-the-most-prestigious-ones">less prestigious and have lower monetary value</a>.</p>
<p>Addressing structural and implicit bias in STEM will hopefully prevent another half-century wait before the next woman is acknowledged with a Nobel Prize for her contribution to physics. I look forward to the day when a woman receiving the most prestigious award in science is newsworthy only for her science and not her gender.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-more-women-dont-win-science-nobels-104370">an article originally published</a> on Oct. 5, 2018.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/169493/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Mary K. Feeney is Program Director for the National Science Foundation's Science of Science: Discovery, Communication, and Impact (SoS:DCI) program.</span></em></p>
Science fields are improving at being more inclusive. But explicit and implicit barriers still hold women back from advancing in the same numbers as men to the upper reaches of STEM academia.
Mary K. Feeney, Professor and Lincoln Professor of Ethics in Public Affairs, Arizona State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/165096
2021-07-30T04:47:41Z
2021-07-30T04:47:41Z
We must include more women in physics — it would help the whole of humanity
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413680/original/file-20210729-13-1swsyd4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=29%2C107%2C4000%2C2143&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Prajval Shastri</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>All around the world, there is an extreme gender imbalance in physics, in both academia and industry.</p>
<p>Examples are all too easy to find. In Burkina Faso’s largest university, the University of Ouagadougou, 99% of physics students are men. In Germany, women comprise only 24% of physics PhD graduates — creeping up from 21% in 2017. No women graduated in physical sciences at the University of El Salvador between 2017 and 2020.</p>
<p>Australia fares little better. Australian National University Professor Lisa Kewley <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01341-z">forecasts</a> that on current settings, it will take <a href="https://theconversation.com/looking-at-the-stars-or-falling-by-the-wayside-how-astronomy-is-failing-female-scientists-159139">60 years</a> for women to comprise just a third of professional astronomers.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/looking-at-the-stars-or-falling-by-the-wayside-how-astronomy-is-failing-female-scientists-159139">Looking at the stars, or falling by the wayside? How astronomy is failing female scientists</a>
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<p>And the hits keep coming. A survey by the UK Royal Astronomical Society, <a href="https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/survey-finds-bullying-and-harassment-systemic-astronomy-and-geophysics">published last week</a>, found women and non-binary people in the field are 50% more likely than men to be bullied and harassed, and that 50% of LGBQ astronomers have suffered bullying in the past 12 months.</p>
<p>There are occasional glimmers in the gloom. In India, for instance, women now comprise 43% of those with a degree in science, technology, engineering or mathematics (STEM). But that figure is much lower in physics and in the higher echelons of academia.</p>
<p>Clearly, this gender imbalance urgently needs to be fixed. This is not simply a matter of principle: around the world, many of our best and brightest minds are excluded, to everyone’s detriment.</p>
<p>This month, the <a href="https://iupap.org/">International Union of Pure and Applied Physics</a> held its <a href="https://whova.com/web/icwip_202109/">seventh conference</a> focused on the roles and prospects of women in the discipline. Held online, but hubbed in Melbourne, the five-day event was attended by more than 300 scientists from more than 50 countries.</p>
<p>We met many women who showed strength, leadership and commitment to progress physics in their countries, sometimes under very difficult circumstances. As the conference progressed, some <a href="https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/category/iupap-women">distinct targets for action</a> emerged.</p>
<h2>Dissolving barriers</h2>
<p>One priority is the need to overcome the barriers that prompt many women to leave physics before reaching its most senior levels. This happens for many reasons, including uncertainty in gaining long-term employment and the associated doubts about ever achieving senior positions, but research shows the effect is felt disproportionately by women.</p>
<p>Kewley’s analysis <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-021-01341-z">found</a> that in Australian astronomy, 62% of women, compared with 17% of men, leave between postdoc and assistant professor level. A further 48% of women (and 28% of men) leave before the associate professor level.</p>
<p>Similar results are found in the UK, where the Royal Astronomical Society <a href="https://ras.ac.uk/news-and-press/news/survey-finds-bullying-and-harassment-systemic-astronomy-and-geophysics">reported</a> that women make up 29% of astronomy lecturers but only 12% of astronomy professors.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-keep-more-women-in-science-technology-engineering-and-mathematics-stem-61664">How to keep more women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM)</a>
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<h2>Collaborating with industry</h2>
<p>Mentoring women to become entrepreneurs and commercial leaders is a key strategy for underpinning independence, well-being and social standing for women physicists.</p>
<p>“Entrepreneurship isn’t common in many developing countries, particularly not among women physicists, where social and economic conditions impede innovation and collaboration with industry,” Associate Professor Rayda Gammag, from Mapúa University in the Philippines, told the conference.</p>
<p>Another participant, Professor Mmantsae Moche Diale, a senior physicist at the University of Pretoria, South Africa, reflected that many people don’t know how to translate their research ideas into business.</p>
<p>“It is important that you get guidance on how to navigate challenging situations to translate your research into a product you can sell,” she said.</p>
<h2>Helping women physicists in developing countries</h2>
<p>In some countries, social, cultural, economic and religious norms mean there is little support for women physicists. This can be deep-rooted, with discrimination at the earliest levels of education. University-educated women often find themselves blocked from research funding or leadership positions.</p>
<p>IUPAP has an important role to play here, through connecting women physicists in developing countries with their global colleagues, developing codes of conduct to combat discrimination and aggression, and reaching out through our regional chapters.</p>
<p>“Some countries have so few women that they’d benefit from joining a network with others in a similar situation,” Adjunct Professor Igle Gledhill from the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa told the conference.</p>
<h2>Showing the way</h2>
<p>Despite the deeply ingrained challenges, there are some signs of progress. Two standout nations are Iran and India. </p>
<p>In Iran, women make up 55% of physics PhD candidates and high-school science teachers, Azam Iraji zad of the Physics Society of Iran told the conference. It was also revealed that the proportion of women in STEM education in India is larger than in the UK, the United States or France.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the conference heard stark evidence that action to remove gender barriers in physics around the world will often be met not just with resistance but sometimes violence.</p>
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<img alt="Prajval Shastri sitting at her desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/413681/original/file-20210729-21-1obz0ag.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Prajval Shastri at work.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>One of us (Prajval Shastri) led a workshop that delivered powerful and practical recommendations on how to ensure no one is left behind. Physicists have multiple identities beyond gender, such as race, class, caste and abled-ness, creating a complex pattern of disadvantage and privilege. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the physics enterprise should learn from the gender gap but go beyond it and aim to centre itself on the interests of its most vulnerable members. That way, it will emerge as a better and more inclusive profession for everybody. </p>
<p>This needs to happen everywhere from the classroom to the lab, to conferences, industry networking and public science communication. Boys and girls alike deserve to see more role models from all marginalised groups doing physics.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/isaac-newton-invented-calculus-in-self-isolation-during-the-great-plague-he-didnt-have-kids-to-look-after-137076">Isaac Newton invented calculus in self-isolation during the Great Plague. He didn't have kids to look after</a>
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<p>The conference generated a <a href="https://www.scienceinpublic.com.au/category/iupap-women">series of recommendations</a>, which we will now share with the wider physics community. We welcome the debate that will follow.</p>
<p>Excluding, silencing and discouraging so many brilliant minds carries a very heavy cost, not just to the women directly impacted, but to all of humanity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/165096/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Prajval Shastri is founder and past chair of the Gender in Physics Working Group of the Indian Physics Association, and in her capacity as chair, she was the PI on a grant from the Department of Science & Technology, Government of India, that funded a national conference on gender equity in physics called Pressing for Progress 2019 (<a href="https://progress2019.tifrh.res.in">https://progress2019.tifrh.res.in</a>).
Prajval Shastri is a member of the Working Group 5 for Women in Physics of the International Union for Pure and Applied Physics, and perforce on the international Organising Committee of the 7th IUPAP ICWIP conference.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Cathy Foley and Sarah Maddison do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Excluding, silencing and discouraging so many brilliant minds carries a very heavy cost, not just to the women directly impacted, but to all of humanity.
Cathy Foley, Australia's Chief Scientist, Office of the Chief Scientist
Prajval Shastri, Professor
Sarah Maddison, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic Innovation & Change), Professor of Astrophysics, Swinburne University of Technology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/164054
2021-07-13T12:28:19Z
2021-07-13T12:28:19Z
John Glenn’s fan mail shows many girls dreamed of the stars – but sexism in the early space program thwarted their ambitions
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410471/original/file-20210708-13-wpft69.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=14%2C0%2C496%2C398&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Glenn, in the NASA mailroom, received letters from fans of all ages.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://kb.osu.edu/handle/1811/50581">John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Pioneering spacefarer John Herschel Glenn Jr. would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. </p>
<p>When Glenn died in 2016, the famed astronaut was lauded as “<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/08/opinion/john-glenn-the-last-american-hero.html">the last genuine American hero</a>.” <a href="https://twitter.com/NASA/status/806960800669794305">NASA</a>, the <a href="https://twitter.com/USMC/status/806962798446211073">U.S. Marine Corps</a>, <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/08/statement-president-passing-john-glenn">President Barack Obama</a> and many others <a href="https://www.facebook.com/potus/photos/a.428389484017564.1073741830.424207551102424/573534829503028/?type=3&theater">posted tributes on social media</a>. </p>
<p>Hundreds of nostalgic fans testified to Glenn’s impact on their own senses of youthful possibility. One woman recalled being a fifth grader in February 1962, listening to coverage of Glenn’s orbital flight at school on a transistor radio: “This was the definition of the future … I wanted to do hard math with slide rules and learn hard languages and solve mysteries. I wanted to be like John Glenn.” </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=326&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149557/original/image-20161212-31402-1taa3rl.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=409&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Word cloud made from readers’ comments on The New York Times obituary, Dec. 8-9, 2016.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Glenn’s <a href="http://johnandannieglennmuseum.org/">life and legacy</a> continue to be widely celebrated. Yet recent <a href="https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324003243">scholarship</a> on the early Space Age has reawakened questions about the ways <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674237391">gender, race, ethnicity and class</a> shaped the human space flight program in the U.S.</p>
<p>Was America’s first starman really everybody’s hero? </p>
<h2>‘Even though I am a girl…’</h2>
<p>As a historian undertaking a major research project called “<a href="https://youtu.be/2bmax47C4fQ?t=2590">A Sky Full of Stars: Girls and Space-Age Cultures in Cold War America and the Soviet Union</a>,” I have analyzed hundreds of fan mail letters written by girls in the U.S. and USSR to the spacefarers Yuri Gagarin, John Glenn and Valentina Tereshkova. I set out to discover how young people experienced the early triumphs of human space flight, and how the dramatic events they witnessed influenced their own senses of what they could aspire to and achieve.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149890/original/image-20161213-1594-hwjfb3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Schoolgirls in New York, 1962.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>My research in the <a href="https://library.osu.edu/oca/glenn-archives">John H. Glenn Archives</a> at The Ohio State University revealed that the majority of American girls’ letters to Glenn conformed to established gender conventions.</p>
<p>Girls frequently congratulated the astronaut on stereotypically masculine characteristics – strength and bravery – while denying that they themselves possessed those qualities. Some were openly flirtatious, offering admiring personal comments on Glenn’s appearance, physique and sex appeal. Some also wrote to request an autograph or glossy photo, embracing a well-established culture of celebrity and fandom that was pervasive among American girls of the era. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=707&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149585/original/image-20161212-31396-1m6sgzs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=888&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">High school yearbook picture of one letter writer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ancestry</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The letters that interest me most are from girls who were so inspired by Glenn’s accomplishment that they envisioned for themselves a place in the STEM world of science, technology, engineering and math.</p>
<p>Some wrote to Glenn to report about their science fair projects or rocket design clubs and to ask for technical advice. Some expressed the desire to follow their hero into careers in aviation and astronautics, even as they expressed skepticism that such a path would be open to them. </p>
<p>The formulation “even though I am a girl I hope to be just like you” in various manifestations appeared as a steady refrain in girls’ letters.</p>
<p>Diane A. of Fergus Falls, Minnesota, wrote, “I would very much like to become an astronaut, but since I am a 15-year-old girl I guess that would be impossible.”</p>
<p>Suzanne K. from Fairfax, Virginia, was more defiant: “I hope I go to the moon sometime when I’m older. I’m a girl but if men can go in space so can women.”</p>
<p>Carol C. of Glendale, New York, wrote to ask “this one simple question concerning a woman’s place in space. Will she only be needed around Cape Canaveral or will she eventually accompany an astronaut into space? If so I sure wish I were she.”</p>
<p>The news that “the Russians” had sent a woman into space in June 1963 emboldened some girls to ask Glenn more pointed questions.</p>
<p>Ella H., an African American girl from segregated Meridian, Mississippi, wrote on behalf of her junior high school class to inquire, “What were our male astronauts’ reactions when Russia’s female astronaut made more orbits than they? … Do you seven male astronauts think that a woman will go into space within the next two years?” </p>
<p>Meanwhile, Patricia A. of Newport News, Virginia, asked Glenn outright, “Do you think that sending women into space is a very good idea?”</p>
<h2>Glenn and the ‘problem’ of ‘lady astronauts’</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/149588/original/image-20161212-31402-1nw11rf.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=950&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Although Jerrie Cobb never flew in space, she and 24 other women (including Wally Funk) underwent physical tests similar to those taken by the Mercury astronauts with the belief that she might become an astronaut trainee.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:JerrieCobb_MercuryCapsule.jpg">NASA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>While few of his replies to letter writers were preserved in the archive, those that exist suggest Glenn avoided encouraging girls’ dreams of flight and space exploration.</p>
<p>Fourteen-year-old Carol S. in Brooklyn wrote to her “idol” to share her “strong desire to be an astronaut” and seek Glenn’s advice on how to overcome the obstacle of being a girl, “a slight problem it seems.” Glenn replied four months later to thank Carol for her letter, but rather than answering her query directly he enclosed “some literature which I hope will answer your questions.”</p>
<p>A girl named “Pudge” from Springfield, Illinois sent a long enthusiastic letter sharing her plans to join the Air Force and her “thrill at the sight or sound of jets, helicopters (especially the H-37A ‘Mojave’) rockets or anything connected with space, the Air Force or flying.” Glenn sent a friendly reply including “some literature about the space program which I hope you will enjoy,” but said nothing about the viability of the girl’s aspirations. </p>
<p>Hard evidence of Glenn’s position on the question of “lady astronauts” came in the form of his congressional testimony in July 1962. A Special Subcommittee on the Selection of Astronauts of the House Committee on Science and Astronautics was formed in response to the quashing of the privately funded “<a href="http://history.nasa.gov/printFriendly/flats.html">woman in space</a>” program and related allegations of sex discrimination at NASA.</p>
<p>A March 1962 <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/nasa%E2%80%99s-early-stand-women-astronauts-%E2%80%9Cno-present-plans-include-women-space-flights%E2%80%9D">letter from the director of NASA’s Office of Public Services and Information</a> to a young girl who had written to President John F. Kennedy to ask if she could become an astronaut stated that “we have no present plans to employ women on space flights because of the degree of scientific and flight training, and the physical characteristics, which are required.”</p>
<p>Glenn’s testimony before the subcommittee echoed that position. In his opinion, the best-qualified astronauts were those who had experience as military pilots, a career path that was closed to women. In a <a href="https://scholarlypress.si.edu/store/air-space/spacefarers-images-astronauts-and-cosmonauts/">much-quoted statement</a>, Glenn asserted that “the men go off and fight the wars and fly the airplanes and come back and help design and build and test them. The fact that women are not in this field is a fact of our social order.” The <a href="https://www.google.com/books/edition/Qualifications_for_Astronauts/xGIVAAAAIAAJ?hl=en">subcommittee’s final report</a> concurred, effectively barring female applicants from consideration for the Apollo missions.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="smiling girl stands in front of a John Glenn space mural" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/410803/original/file-20210712-70680-vk5s0w.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Photo included in letter to John Glenn, February 2000.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">John Glenn Archives, The Ohio State University</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Girls in space</h2>
<p>The relationship between Glenn and his young female fans was complicated by the male-dominated cultures of mid-20th-century America. Prevailing gender stereotypes, limited opportunities, sexism and a lack of STEM role models all stood between girls’ dreams and the stars.</p>
<p>Glenn’s position on the “lady astronaut” problem evolved in a more egalitarian direction after he left NASA. As historian <a href="https://jhupbooks.press.jhu.edu/title/integrating-women-astronaut-corps">Amy E. Foster noted</a>, a May 1965 Miami Herald article headlined “Glenn Sees Place for Girls In Space” quoted the astronaut as saying that NASA’s plans to develop a new “scientist-astronaut” program should “offer a serious chance for space women.”</p>
<p>Glenn’s prediction was on the mark. The “social order” that Glenn discussed in July 1962 has shifted dramatically in the intervening decades. NASA’s space shuttle program opened the door for Sally Ride’s voyage in 1983, <a href="https://theconversation.com/astronaut-sally-k-rides-legacy-encouraging-young-women-to-embrace-science-and-engineering-97371">establishing her as a powerful inspiration for girls</a>. While cultural obstacles remain, NASA has <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-giant-leap-for-humankind-future-moon-missions-will-include-diverse-astronauts-and-more-partners-117064">diversified the astronaut corps</a> significantly and has taken conscious <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/final_di_plan_8-15-16_tagged.pdf">steps to make the agency more inclusive overall</a>.</p>
<p>A much wider spectrum of positive STEM role models exists for girls today. The book and film “<a href="http://margotleeshetterly.com/hidden-figures-nasas-african-american-computers">Hidden Figures</a>” celebrated the accomplishments of <a href="https://theconversation.com/7-lessons-from-hidden-figures-nasa-mathematician-katherine-johnsons-life-and-career-132481">Katherine Johnson</a>, Mary Jackson and Dorothy Vaughn – three Black women of NASA who helped make Glenn’s success possible. <a href="https://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/oct/10/makers-season-two-women-space/">Documentaries</a> and <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/whm-recent-female-astronauts">websites</a> record the stories of pioneering female spacefarers. Television series including “<a href="https://tv.apple.com/us/show/for-all-mankind/umc.cmc.6wsi780sz5tdbqcf11k76mkp7">For All Mankind</a>” and “<a href="https://www.netflix.com/title/80214512">Away</a>” imagine a past and future where female astronauts are central to American ambitions in space. </p>
<p>Women’s opportunities in the real world are expanding as well. Two of <a href="https://www.glamour.com/story/virgin-galactic-launch-the-age-of-space-tourism-is-here-we-talked-to-the-first-two-women-on-board">Virgin Galactic’s first flown astronauts</a> are women. At 82, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2021/07/jeff-bezos-wally-funk-blue-origin/619344/">Mercury 13 alumna Wally Funk</a> is poised to break <a href="https://airandspace.si.edu/stories/editorial/john-glenns-return-space-discovery">Glenn’s record</a> as the oldest human in space when <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/07/09/1014309461/wally-funk-space-bezos-blue-origin">she flies with Blue Origins on July 20, 2021</a>. </p>
<p>As barriers continue to fall, NASA has grand plans for the revival of human spaceflight. Prompted in part by <a href="https://theconversation.com/women-are-less-supportive-of-space-exploration-getting-a-woman-on-the-moon-might-change-that-118986">women’s tepid support</a> for high-stakes missions to the Moon and Mars, NASA is taking unprecedented steps to showcase the talents and ambitions of female astronauts. After an <a href="https://theconversation.com/female-astronauts-how-performance-products-like-space-suits-and-bras-are-designed-to-pave-the-way-for-womens-accomplishments-114346">initial misstep</a>, the first <a href="https://theconversation.com/female-astronauts-how-performance-products-like-space-suits-and-bras-are-designed-to-pave-the-way-for-womens-accomplishments-114346">all-female spacewalk</a> took place in October 2019. More importantly, <a href="https://www.nasa.gov/specials/artemis-team/">Project Artemis</a> promises to land a woman on the Moon in 2024.</p>
<p>Fan mail letters to John Glenn offer a potent reminder that astronaut heroics can have a powerful <a href="https://rocket-women.com/category/inspirational-women/">impact on young people’s attitudes and aspirations</a>. A woman on the Moon is sure to inspire a new generation of girls to reach for the stars. NASA is banking on just that.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/even-though-i-am-a-girl-john-glenns-fan-mail-and-sexism-in-the-early-space-program-70252">an article</a> originally published on Dec. 12, 2016.</em></p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Roshanna P. Sylvester received funding for this research from the American Philosophical Society, the Spencer Foundation, the Kennan Institute, and DePaul University.</span></em></p>
John Glenn would have turned 100 on July 18, 2021. Today’s space program is a giant leap more inclusive than when he made his pioneering orbit of the Earth in 1962.
Roshanna P. Sylvester, Associate Professor of Critical Media Practices and Digital Humanities, University of Colorado Boulder
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162515
2021-06-22T20:02:59Z
2021-06-22T20:02:59Z
Here’s an approach to mentoring that can help close the leadership gender gap
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407360/original/file-20210621-35447-36u9yj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5176%2C3453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/two-women-working-computer-contemporary-office-284518922">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Mentoring is known to be a critical component of <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0207634">job satisfaction and career development</a>. It is also widely recognised that career advancement in medicine, research and health more broadly remains <a href="https://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/education/face-facts-gender-equality-2018">in favour of men</a>. </p>
<p>Traditional academic mentoring programs rely on a unidirectional mentor-mentee relationship: a senior academic mentors a junior (female) academic. This model has been shown to increase mentees’ <a href="https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-018-1290-3">personal achievement</a>, <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0207634">career progress and satisfaction with work environment</a>. </p>
<p>While these are important achievements, <a href="https://www.publicanthropology.org/interrogating-model-mentoring-by-simone-dennis-and-alison-behie/">Simone Dennis and Alison Behie</a> <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-mentoring-for-women-risks-propping-up-patriarchal-structures-instead-of-changing-them-157965">argue</a> that “by replicating action of the mentors, junior women are merely trained how to navigate a system that favours men”. Traditional mentoring programs teach women how to work within, rather than change, a system biased against them. This perpetuates patriarchal structures.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-mentoring-for-women-risks-propping-up-patriarchal-structures-instead-of-changing-them-157965">Why mentoring for women risks propping up patriarchal structures instead of changing them</a>
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<p>We have established a mentoring program for women scientists that focuses on diversifying and changing the education sector. This program helps equip them to challenge systemic values and culture. </p>
<h2>What’s different about this model?</h2>
<p>The <a href="https://www.hotnorth.org.au/opportunities/catalyse-mentorship-program-women-scientists/">Catalyse Mentorship Program</a> in regional and rural Australia follows a dual-mentorship model. This means each female mentee is matched with an academic mentor and a corporate-sector mentor. </p>
<p>Our <a href="https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-020-02219-w">research</a> found the Catalyse academic mentors provided technical university/ research pathways advice. They advised on explicit and implicit academic growth, such as formal university progression, the types of journals to publish in and how to distinguish one’s specific work. </p>
<p>The corporate mentors, on the other hand, provided advice on strategy, leadership and interpersonal skills. Advice included “how to generate consensus within a team and with external stakeholders”, “how to have difficult conversations”, and “how to build and express your personal brand”. </p>
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<img alt="Chart showing topics discussed with Catalyse program's academic and corporate mentors" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407373/original/file-20210621-22-1mups4y.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-020-02219-w">Chart: The Conversation. Data: Championing women working in health across regional and rural Australia – a new dual-mentorship model</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-mentoring-improves-the-leadership-skills-of-those-doing-the-mentoring-143668">How mentoring improves the leadership skills of those doing the mentoring</a>
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<p>The Catalyse mentees reported positive “discomfort” at being pushed out of their “comfort zones”. This allowed them to reflect on leadership and impact outside their academic institution. The mentees set the agenda and explored first-time activities such as developing business cases, establishing peer-to-peer networking groups and applying for awards and accolades. </p>
<h2>Group approach has additional benefits</h2>
<p>Group mentoring is a way to go beyond supporting women and enhancing their capacity to manage a patriarchal culture. Bringing women together with a senior (retired) researcher has delivered several additional benefits compared to traditional unidirectional mentoring. </p>
<p>As the group members share their stories and worries, the sense of injustice and the care for each other increase. The women also bring a range of solutions and support to each other. This process strengthens ties within the cohort. </p>
<p>Such solutions are far more likely to be effective than those a single older mentor might suggest. That’s because they come from a contemporary context and a broader set of experiences. </p>
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<img alt="chart showing outcomes of Catalyse mentorship program" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/407371/original/file-20210621-62599-u32u50.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://bmcmededuc.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12909-020-02219-w">Chart: The Conversation. Data: Championing women working in health across regional and rural Australia – a new dual-mentorship model</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-to-support-junior-staff-in-a-time-of-turmoil-for-universities-148917">How to support junior staff in a time of turmoil for universities</a>
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<p>In addition, all the groups we have mentored have debated carefully developed strategies aimed at changing the status quo. This would not have happened in one-on-one mentoring. Examples of these strategies are:</p>
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<li><p>request data on fund-raising within the organisation – and relate that data to gender as well as research area</p></li>
<li><p>demand administrative support for women who are asked to take on additional leadership or other roles – which made organisations look as if they were supporting more women but didn’t give them the capacity to manage those roles without significant impacts on their research time</p></li>
<li><p>present collective suggestions for the organisation to consider </p></li>
<li><p>push for the women to be the leading chief investigator on grant applications and first or senior author on papers, to be considered for national committees and to give keynote presentations at major conferences. </p></li>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/forget-the-ideal-worker-myth-unis-need-to-become-more-inclusive-for-all-women-men-will-benefit-too-156107">Forget the ideal worker myth. Unis need to become more inclusive for all women (men will benefit too)</a>
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<p>One of us (Fiona Stanley) has experience in group mentoring of First Nations health research scholars. The benefits of sharing experiences within these cohorts is that the scholars are able to provide much more solid collective solutions than if in a one-on-one session with a non-Indigenous older researcher. </p>
<p>It was clear from these sessions that racism pervades the health academic sector. However, empowering the group of mentees has resulted in major activities to address racism in their organisations. These include: mentees offering to give major presentations to the executive teams, often bringing in external speakers who have more power; suggesting and running NAIDOC activities; and reviewing reconciliation action plans to make them real rather than a token or box-ticking exercise.</p>
<h2>3 key elements to bring about change</h2>
<p>A <em>strong</em> mentoring model should consider three key elements to close the leadership gap:</p>
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<li><p>mentees set the agenda and are empowered to initiate change within the organisation</p></li>
<li><p>diversify mentors, include mentors from corporate/business sectors, and do group mentoring to enhance networks </p></li>
<li><p>hold mentor networking events throughout the program, leading to cross-fertilisation between networks and (funding) opportunities.</p></li>
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<p>Mentoring programs like these provide a more rounded approach to closing the leadership gap. These programs offer participants both discipline-based technical advice and external guidance on personal attributes and the strategic thinking needed to lead. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft">Mary Wollstonecraft</a> <a href="http://www.womeninworldhistory.com/lesson16.html">wrote</a> in laying out the first steps toward bringing down the patriarchy for the betterment of all humanity, “I do not wish them [women] to have power over men; but over themselves.”</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/its-not-lack-of-confidence-thats-holding-back-women-in-stem-155216">It's not lack of confidence that's holding back women in STEM</a>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162515/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fiona Stanley received funding from NHMRC and ARC over many years of her research career; she no longer receives funds but is associated with several grants for which she is an unpaid advisor and mentor.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Teresa Wozniak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
One criticism of traditional mentoring is that it teaches people how to succeed by playing by existing rules, thus reinforcing the status quo. But mentoring can also be a force for change.
Teresa Wozniak, Senior Research Fellow and co-founder Catalyse Mentorship Program, Menzies School of Health Research
Fiona Stanley, Perinatal and pediatric epidemiologist; distinguished professorial fellow, Telethon Kids Institute
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/161931
2021-06-10T10:02:16Z
2021-06-10T10:02:16Z
Remembering Tania Douglas: a brilliant biomedical engineer, academic and friend
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403802/original/file-20210601-23-1rvztpr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Professor Tania Douglas is warmly remembered as an excellent scientist and a remarkable human being.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Je'nine May/UCT Health Sciences</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Tributes from friends, colleagues, collaborators and students have poured in for South African academic Professor Tania Samantha Douglas, an internationally recognised scholar, biomedical engineer and innovator. She passed away on 20 March 2021.</p>
<p>She was admired by many and consulted broadly for her unique insights, in-depth understanding of South Africa’s higher education environment, and open-mindedness. Always vibrant, she was able to fully engage with issues in an unbiased manner – sharing her well-considered thoughts in a friendly and practical way.</p>
<p>Tania obtained the second highest grade in the country in her final school exams in 1987. She went on to read for a BScEng in Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the University of Cape Town (UCT). This was followed by an MS in Biomedical Engineering at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Then came a PhD in Bioengineering from the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, and a postdoctoral fellowship in image processing with the Japan Broadcasting Corporation in Tokyo. </p>
<p>In 2000, Tania returned to her alma mater. She took up a lecturer position in the Department of Biomedical Engineering.</p>
<p>In her recent work, she strove to combine biomedical engineering with social context. Her aim was to find novel solutions towards improved health. To this end, she developed a new postgraduate programme in Health Innovation teaching human-centred innovation with an emphasis on end-user engagement. </p>
<p>She believed and advocated that Africa needs to find solutions to its own problems and worked tirelessly to build biomedical engineering capacity across the continent. </p>
<h2>Academic legacy</h2>
<p>During her 21 years at the University of Cape Town, Tania held numerous leadership positions within the department and faculty. These included serving as Divisional Head for a period and serving as Deputy Dean of Research in the Faculty of Health Sciences. She also, for the past decade, led the <a href="http://www.health.uct.ac.za/fhs/research/groupings/miru">Medical Research Council/UCT Medical Imaging Research Unit</a>. </p>
<p>In 2016, Tania was awarded the prestigious South African Research Chair in Biomedical Engineering and Innovation. Two years later she was Founding Director of UCT’s <a href="http://www.bme.uct.ac.za/">Biomedical Engineering Research Centre</a>. </p>
<p>Tania excelled in all spheres of academia. She headed a large research group, and trained and graduated more than 50 master’s and doctoral students. Postdoctoral fellows and junior staff were among those she mentored. She also published extensively in leading international journals, and taught and developed courses. Her scholarly contributions were recognised through numerous awards. These included research fellowships from the <a href="https://www.ictp.it/">International Institute for Theoretical Physics</a> in Trieste, Italy; <a href="https://www.humboldt-foundation.de/">the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation</a> in Germany; and the European Union’s <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/programmes/erasmus-plus/opportunities/individuals/students/erasmus-mundus-joint-masters-scholarships_en">Erasmus Mundus programme</a>. </p>
<p>The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Women in Engineering’s South Africa Section named her as its female academic/researcher of the year in 2009.</p>
<p>In 2018 she was recognised as a Quartz Africa Innovator. A year later, the South African Women in Science Awards named her as Distinguished Woman Researcher in Research and Innovation. In the past decade, she was elected a Fellow by the South African Academy of Engineering, the International Academy of Medical and Biological Engineering, and the University of Cape Town. She was also a member of the <a href="https://www.assaf.org.za/">Academy of Science of South Africa</a>.</p>
<p>Tania’s <a href="https://scholar.google.co.za/citations?user=BSEwIocAAAAJ&hl=en">research</a> focused on major public health problems in South Africa. She developed novel instruments and computer-assisted techniques. Some of her early work involved <a href="https://www.ajol.info/index.php/cme/article/view/71954">developing image-processing techniques</a> to characterise the facial phenotype associated with foetal alcohol syndrome – a condition of which the incidence in certain communities in South Africa is among the highest in the world. </p>
<p>Tania also made seminal contributions in tuberculosis (TB) diagnosis. One was the development of a ‘smart microscope’ that automated detection of TB bacilli in stained sputum smears. Another was the computer-aided detection of pulmonary pathology in paediatric chest X-rays.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/africa-needs-to-start-creating-its-own-medical-technology-heres-how-84642">Africa needs to start creating its own medical technology. Here's how</a>
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<p>She played a leading role in establishing the African Biomedical Consortium. She also launched and was founding Editor-in-Chief of the open-access electronic journal Global Health Innovation. In addition she edited the open-access eBook <a href="https://openbooks.uct.ac.za/uct/catalog/book/bmeafrica">Biomedical Engineering for Africa</a> (University of Cape Town Libraries; 2019).</p>
<p>Since 2014, Tania had served as Associate Editor of both the South African Journal of Science and Medical Engineering and Physics. In January 2021 she was appointed as Editor-in-Chief of the latter.</p>
<h2>A great void</h2>
<p>Tania was warm and empathetic, and an inspiring mentor to many. As her friend and head of the Department of Human Biology at UCT, Professor Sharon Price, <a href="https://www.caperay.com/blog/in-memoriam-tania-douglas/">wrote</a>:</p>
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<p>We will remember Tania for being an amazing woman – brave, humble and brilliant. She lived her life, and carried her illness, with extraordinary grace and dignity. We will remember her for her astute intellect and her quiet humanity to build others in the process. She was talented and gracious, and we will remember her positive attitude and ever-present beautiful smile.</p>
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<p>Tania is survived by her parents, Rita and Aubrey Douglas.</p>
<p><em>This tribute originally appeared in the <a href="https://sajs.co.za/article/view/11067">South African Journal of Science</a>.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/161931/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ernesta M. Meintjes has received funding from the NRF, DST, TIA, MRC and the National Institutes of Health in the U.S. </span></em></p>
She believed and advocated that Africa needs to find solutions to its own problems and worked tirelessly to build biomedical engineering capacity across the continent.
Ernesta M. Meintjes, Professor in Biomedical Engineering, University of Cape Town
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/162009
2021-06-02T15:10:06Z
2021-06-02T15:10:06Z
Pasha 109: Ecology research has a huge gap: the work of women and the global South
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/403991/original/file-20210602-1786-jpqlkj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">shutterstock</span> </figcaption></figure><p>Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and the environment around them. It is an important branch of study, exploring how animals, plants, the land, climate and humans are interconnected. But a <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/conl.12797">study</a> of 13 leading journals in ecology over 75 years has shown that in this field, women researchers are seriously under-represented. So are countries in the global South – even those with excellent scientists. Kenya and South Africa were the only African countries represented among the authors in these journals. And only 11% of the authors were women.</p>
<p>This is important because the world cannot afford to neglect the perspectives and experiences of women and global South researchers in addressing the global climate and environmental crisis. A more balanced view is needed to inform practical interventions. </p>
<p>Bea Maas, a lecturer at the department of botany and biodiversity research at the Universität Wien, is one of the study’s authors. In today’s episode of Pasha, she discusses this imbalance in ecology research and what to do about it. People in the scientific community should start by assessing themselves and their institutions, to look for bias and under-representation. When foreign scientists work in the global South, they should actively collaborate with local scientists and local experts.</p>
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<p><strong>Photo:</strong><br>
“Concept of ecology. Imprint of human footprint in nature” by urfin found on <a href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-illustration/concept-ecology-imprint-human-footprint-nature-402170668">Shutterstock</a></p>
<p><strong>Music:</strong>
“Happy African Village” by John Bartmann, found on <a href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/John_Bartmann/Public_Domain_Soundtrack_Music_Album_One/happy-african-village">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/">CC0 1</a>.</p>
<p>“Mama Africa” by UFO found on <a href="https://freemusicarchive.org/music/RawMusicINTL/Raw_Music_International_Kisumu_Mixtape/Mama_Africa">FreeMusicArchive.org</a> licensed under <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives (aka Music Sharing) 3.0 International License.</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162009/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Ecology needs to be more inclusive of research from the global South and by women, to create a balanced view of the world.
Ozayr Patel, Digital Editor
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/160913
2021-05-21T16:03:48Z
2021-05-21T16:03:48Z
The 2021 World Food Prize recognizes that fish are key for reducing hunger and malnutrition
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402149/original/file-20210521-17-1i4a22q.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C5%2C3637%2C2708&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nutrient-rich small fish harvested from a rice field in Bangladesh.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ben Belton</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fish and other aquatic foods are integral to diets for <a href="https://www.msc.org/en-us/what-we-are-doing/oceans-at-risk/the-impact-on-communities/communities-impact-stats/1-billion">more than 1 billion people worldwide</a>. Most of these people live in low- and middle-income countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, close to rivers, lakes or the sea. </p>
<p>In these regions, foods like fresh and dried fish are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2013.11.003">central to local cuisines</a>, and are often cheaper or more available than alternatives like eggs, dairy products and fruit. These “<a href="https://www.unnutrition.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-UN-Nutrition-Aquatic-foods-Paper_EN_.pdf">aquatic superfoods</a>” pack an outsized punch as rich sources of micronutrients that are essential to human health and cognitive development. </p>
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/oceans-21-96784">Oceans 21</a></em></strong>
<br><em>Our series on the global ocean opened with <a href="https://oceans21.netlify.app/">five in depth profiles</a>. Look out for new articles on the state of our oceans in the lead up to the UN’s next climate conference, COP26. The series is brought to you by The Conversation’s international network.</em></p>
<p>Nonetheless, aquatic foods are often <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s13280-020-01451-4">on the margins</a> of mainstream agricultural research, nutrition policies and development strategies. Traditionally, global development thinkers have focused on staple crops and livestock as solutions to hunger.</p>
<p>On May 11, 2021, the World Food Prize Foundation announced that its 2021 laureate is <a href="https://www.worldfishcenter.org/wfp-2021/">Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted</a>, a nutrition scientist who in my view has done more than anyone to draw attention to the essential but often overlooked role of <a href="https://www.unnutrition.org/wp-content/uploads/FINAL-UN-Nutrition-Aquatic-foods-Paper_EN_.pdf">aquatic foods in sustainable healthy diets</a>. This US$250,000 prize is often referred to as the Nobel Prize for food and agriculture. It was established by <a href="https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1970/borlaug/biographical/">Norman Borlaug</a>, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in global agriculture.</p>
<p>This year’s award recognizes Thilsted’s four decades of work to improve nutrition and health for millions of malnourished children and their mothers in Asia and Africa. As an <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=0YnHJLcAAAAJ&hl=en">aquaculture researcher</a> who works closely with Thilsted, I believe this award spotlights the need to prioritize fish and aquatic foods in nutrition policies and actions, nationally and globally. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted is being recognized with the 2021 World Food Prize for her work in fish-based food systems.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>A life aquatic</h2>
<p>Shakuntala Thilsted was born in Trinidad and Tobago, where she started her pathbreaking career as the only woman employed in the Ministry of Agriculture, Lands and Fisheries. After moving to Denmark, she completed a Ph.D. at the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Veterinary_and_Agricultural_University">Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University</a>, where she later went on to lead the Department of Animal Physiology.</p>
<p>Moving to Bangladesh in the late 1980s, Thilsted worked at the <a href="https://www.icddrb.org/">icddr,b</a>, an institute formerly known as the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, which treated more than 6,000 malnourished children annually. As a young mother of two children, she was instinctively concerned about child health and nutrition and began investigating measures to prevent malnutrition using locally available and culturally acceptable foods. </p>
<p>Extensive time in the field designing and implementing a nutrition rehabilitation program allowed Thilsted to understand what foods people were eating and how. Listening to women talk about the importance of eating small fish for good health and eyesight piqued her interest in their nutritional value. This insight provided the catalyst for the next three decades of her <a href="https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4041-1651">research career</a>. </p>
<p>On returning to Denmark, Thilsted began teaching graduate students at the University of Copenhagen to analyze micronutrients in fish from Bangladesh. This research revealed that many species of small fish are <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfca.2015.03.002">rich in nutrients</a> that are important for human health. </p>
<p>One fish in particular, mola (<em>Amblypharyngodon mola</em>), was found to contain extremely <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/jn/133.11.4021S">high levels of vitamin A</a>, which is important for <a href="https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/VitaminA-Consumer/#">vision, the immune system and reproduction</a>. Armed with this growing body of evidence, Thilsted set out to increase consumption of small fish, especially for mothers and children.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Woman sitting outside a hut, holding small child." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402161/original/file-20210521-21-rbcw8k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A woman in Bangladesh feeds her child rice fortified with nutritious fish powder.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Finn Thilsted</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
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<h2>Scaling up innovations</h2>
<p>Aquatic foods are particularly important from conception to a child’s second birthday. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.02.005">Not consuming enough micronutrients</a> such as iron, zinc, vitamin A and vitamin B12 increases the risk of illness, maternal and infant mortality, <a href="https://www.who.int/news/item/19-11-2015-stunting-in-a-nutshell#">stunting</a> and poor cognitive performance. Undernutrition accounts for up to <a href="http://glopan.org/sites/default/files/pictures/CostOfMalnutrition.pdf">45% of all preventable child deaths</a>. </p>
<p>In 2010, Thilsted joined the international research institute <a href="https://www.worldfishcenter.org/">WorldFish</a>. She returned to Bangladesh to work at scaling up “<a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.02.005">nutrition-sensitive approaches</a>” to fish production, building on insights from her earlier research. </p>
<p>Her previous work showed that <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/15648265070282S207">small fish like mola grow well</a> in farm ponds <a href="https://digitalarchive.worldfishcenter.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.12348/1054/WF_3140.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y">alongside larger fish such as carp</a>. Simple changes to the way small fish were harvested from ponds, such as using different types of fishing net, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/%2010.1007/s12571-017-0699-6">increased women’s role</a> in their production. Raising small fish in this way proved be a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aquaculture.2015.11.004">highly cost-effective</a> way of reducing the burden of malnutrition. </p>
<p>Thilsted also began investigating ways to deliver micronutrients to mothers and children using fish-based products such as <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0379572115598885">powders, chutneys</a> and <a href="https://fish.cgiar.org/impact/stories-of-change/nutrix-big-reach-small-fish-nourishing-cambodia">wafers</a> as a culturally appropriate way to enhance their diets. WorldFish has promoted these innovations widely to countries including Cambodia, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Malawi, Sierra Leone and Zambia.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Thilsted under a tree, examining a trayful of small fish" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=565&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/402151/original/file-20210521-13-m0frdo.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=710&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Shakuntala Thilsted, on right, in Bangladesh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Flo Lim/WorldFish</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<h2>From research to policy</h2>
<p>Thilsted has worked tirelessly to translate key insights from her research into public policy. This has included partnering closely with governments, such as the State Government of Odisha, India, which recently began including dried fish in <a href="https://worldfishcenter.org/odisha-mou-2020/">food rations</a> that it provides to vulnerable groups. </p>
<p>She also has advised an array of high-profile international organizations, including the <a href="http://www.fao.org/home/en/">Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations</a>, the <a href="https://www.usaid.gov/">U.S. Agency for International Development</a>, the <a href="https://www.ifad.org/en/">International Fund for Agricultural Development</a> and <a href="https://www.unicef.org/">UNICEF</a>. Her efforts have raised awareness of the value of aquatic foods in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2016.02.005">healthy food systems</a> and fostered broader commitments to supporting this transformative role.</p>
<p>Thilsted has lived for many years in the countries where she seeks to create positive change. She is passionate about spending time in the field, observing carefully and asking the right questions. </p>
<p>This spirit of inquiry and extensive hands-on experience, combined with high standards of academic rigor, have given rise to many of her most important insights. For example, she found that wild capture fisheries and fish farming <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gfs.2013.10.001">can both make highly complementary contributions</a> to food and nutrition security.</p>
<p>As I have seen firsthand, Thilsted also has a unique ability to connect with people irrespective of their social status, from women farmers in rural Bangladesh to high officials at the <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca9731en/ca9731en.pdf">United Nations</a>. Generations of young scientists, myself included, have flourished under her mentorship and have been inspired by her remarkable vision, persistence, generosity and commitment to nourishing people and the planet.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ben Belton works with WorldFish as Global Lead for Social and Economic Inclusion, and works closely with Dr. Thilsted. </span></em></p>
Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted, a native of Trinidad and Tobago, is the winner of the 2021 World Food Prize for her work identifying small fish as valuable nutrition sources for developing countries.
Ben Belton, Associate Professor of International Development, Michigan State University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.