The root of the problem is systemic patriarchy that wants women out of the lab and back home taking care of babies. Hillary Clinton, when recently interviewed at the Women’s World Summit, acknowledged that misogyny contributed to her defeat. Although many Americans are quick to rebuke this claim, women in science and engineering careers can […]
There is not a one-to-one relationship between effort and reward in this job, and this uncertainty, which graduate students often learn about by observing their PhD supervisors, is a turn-off, especially for women. On January 21, 2017, the first full day of the Trump administration, women will march on Washington in a demonstration of unity […]
Knowledge is power, but for me, it doesn’t replace faith—it furthers it. One of my first courses in graduate school was a “readings in literary science writing” elective. While introducing herself on the first night of class, the instructor—an older woman who had published a book on medical ethics—announced flatly that if any of us […]
Science is constantly trying to discover new ways to make a woman’s body tick. But should the bedroom be treated as a laboratory? Does this headline sound familiar? “Science says there are actually eight different types of female orgasm.” Or how about this one? “Study shows women have more powerful orgasms with a partner who […]
An unfortunate side effect of teaching men and women alike that STEM fields are the only areas that matter is that the humanities—and by extension, feminine cultural traits like collaboration and compassion—are unfairly seen as frivolous or ornamental. At the transition from fiction to creative non-fiction, I asked my creative writing class to buy copies of Pilgrim […]
Do not tell them that everything happens for a reason, or that you can’t imagine what they’re going through. And whatever you do, do not tell them they’re running out of time. We have all found ourselves in situations in which something traumatic is revealed, and we have no idea what to say. Sometimes people […]
