Acting Like a Nobel Laureate (Female)
Back in October, 2009, Carol Grieder received a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Elizabeth Blackburn and Jack Szostak, for their work on telomerase. The New York Times for October 13, 2009 featured an interview with Carol by Claudia Dreyfus, entitled "On Winning a Nobel Prize in Science."
Claudia's first question to Carol was "Is it true that you were doing laundry when you got that early morning call from Stockholm?" "Yes," she said. "I don't usually do the laundry so early in the morning, but i was already up, and there was all this laundry staring at me." She planned later to go to a spin class with two female friends. After the call, she emailed, "I'm sorry, I can't spin right now, I've won the Nobel Prize."
Later in the interview, Carol said that she had dyslexia as a kid and thought she was stupid. To compensate, she learned to memorize things really well. "So later, when I got to take classes like chemistry and anatomy where I had to memorize things, it turned out I was very good at that."
She also said "I had these blinders on that got me through a lot of things that might have been obstacles. I just went forward. It's a skill that I had early on that must have been adaptive."
Have you ever felt that you got through things by having blinders on? Were you able to succeed as a woman in science by ignoring problems and just going forward?
A. No, I agonized over things that went wrong. Somehow, I got through, but not by ignoring obstacles.
B. Yes, I had a tendency to deny anything was wrong or focus on taking one step at a time.
C. I'm amazed that she succeeded in spite of being dyslexic. I never had that problem and I still felt marginalized.
D. I can't really identify with Nobel laureates. That's not my kind of science.
None of the above. I recognized discrimination and fought against it tooth and nail every step of the way. The only slight I let go was in grad school with a professor who had a boob staring fetish; very strange guy who made everyone uncomfortable including his male colleagues. I still remember the comment my boss made when the department was having an NIH site review for our training grants. "For God's sake, will someone take Jxxx to lunch so we can keep him away from the site team? One of our "guests" is female and you know Jxxx can't help himself." I let the issue of Jxxx go because I saw what happened to another student who stood up to a committee member who was harassing her. Her lawsuit was paid off, her career was over, and he went on to do just fine.
In any case all the fighting wore me out. By the time I finished my postdoc and was interviewing for faculty jobs I had received the very strong advice to get over my "complex" about women in science, or I would never succeed. "Wait until you're tenured, then you can speak out again" was the advice heard over and over again. So I left...and am very happy to be in a place where most of that doesn't matter anymore.
Hi Small Science Woman,
I teach at a small college so in a way, I identify with your remarks. But I do feel connected to Grieder, Blackburn, and the other women who are Nobel laureates. I thrill to read Barbara McClintock's achievements in her biography. I do identify with them, even though I am in a different size of pond.
I feel that there's a continuity in standards, in approaches to scientific questions, in the human thrill of discovery that makes me a small part of their achievement.
cheers,
Laura
I am pleased, in a vague way, when a woman wins the Nobel Prize. But it's not momentous to me. I was not trying to play at that level and don't even feel like it's connected to what I do. I suppose my research is in an area where I'm amplifying the paradigm with my students, but we all enjoy it and there's no need for cutthroat behavior in our little pond. Small Science Woman
I pick C. How in the world did she ignore comments about dyslexia and go on to win the Nobel prize? I am more than amazed. I remember shrinking inside as my science teacher in junior high picked people to go to a science event, all boys. But that's easier on the psyche than being told "You're dyslexic!"
Interesting! Apparently it works to persist in spite of negative signals, just keep focused on the goal. But some can't avoid seeing the bad stuff, and it can deter women from staying in science. I saw women choose otherwise at every step of the road.
cheers,
Laura
I have to pick A. I saw things and i hated them, sometimes protested, but often just suppressed that reaction and carried on. It felt like I kept the slights and bad treatment in deep freeze. Now that I'm older, I find myself mulling over things that happened in graduate school and postdoc years, seeing sexism that I knew about but tried to overlook.
B I often was surprised at the slights other female students or postdocs complained about. I might have had the same thing happen but just paid no attention to it. I heard Shirley TIlghman, molecular biologist and President of Princeton, say in a talk at Marlborough, a girls' high school, that she just thought the person who acted insensitively had a problem and laughed it off. Me too.
OK, B. I didn't feel like it was denial at the time, but I just wouldn't see that there was any problem for years. Like Kimberly in her article, I woke up one day to find problems with discrimination against women in science all around me.
Is this good or bad? If it produced Grieder, probably not all bad!
