On the Necessity of Some Kind of Role Model
Dear friends of women in science,
I'm going over all the material I've written to date on the dual biography of Joan Steitz and Jennifer Doudna, and I see the light at the end of the tunnel in terms of the first draft at least. On this rereading, was struck by the "role model" question again.
Joan Argetsinger never saw a role model woman scientist, although she did have woman science teachers in her high school. But she saw no one who was a working scientist. She didn't think of that as a career open to her and almost became a physician, because she did know woman doctors. The mentor who changed her mind was Joseph Gall, a wonderful supportive collaborator for many women in science. The first impressive woman scientist she saw was after Joan had decided to pursue the career in spite of the lack of role models. The visiting professor lectured to a graduate school class of Joan's; she was a French woman professor who, in Joan's opinion, had done the work on which was based her male laboratory directors' Nobel prize. Joan had to choose the field in the teeth of really negative evidence about women's success, in effect.
Jennfier Doudna, some twenty years later, saw a "killer scientist," a spiffy blonde brilliant scientist who came to speak to her high school in order to inspire interest in science, and that set her on the career path. She did have interest before, but she points to the influence of that woman as being very important as a role model, not nerdy or stuffy, but really impressive. There were other women who worked in science along her pathway, including Sharon Panasenko with whom she did research with during college. It's not that Jennifer never had any moments of doubt, but that the role model helped her stay motivated in spite of them.
Neither one was motivated by reading a biography of Marie Curie. But I was struck by published interviews with the girls who won the science fairs last year, repeatedly citing her biography as providing a role model.
How important have role models been for you and people you know? Does the role model need to be female? Could we consider Joe Gall to be Joan Steitz's role model?
cheers,
Laura
Hi Helen,
Thanks for reminding me that Betty Friedan wrote a sequel to Feminine Mystique. I had forgotten and now I want to reread it asap. I know it's discouraging to realize the situation is still very hard for many, but there are promising pockets of improvement including in industries such as yours. Academia is getting it slowly and patchily. I think great progress has been made at MIT and Wisconsin, for example. Harvard? Not so sure.
We can't call it victory and go home for a parade yet, though. Wish we could!
best,
Laura
Hi Laura,
Your post is timely in that I'm re-reading Betty Freidan's "The Second Stage". It's so sad that she wrote that book in the 80s, and yet the issues are still present for most women in American society. And I feel particularly those issues are profound for women in science. How many times do you hear young women either state confidently that they can "do it all" or shy away from academe because they don't see how a family is compatible? To me that dichotomy has to end for true change to be evident.
In any case, I think either a male or female role model will do. I had several role models during my science training, but most of them were "anti-models" for some aspect of work/life success I was interested in capturing. My graduate advisor was a crazy workaholic, but he made sure to be home for dinner every night! His therapist wife would have kicked his butt if he didn't :)
I rarely saw a woman who was comfortable talking about her family except for one very important NSF ADVANCE workshop where there were 3!
I had plenty of women role models who were first line feminists who were happily single and anti-male...at least until about 45-50 when the longing for what could have been took over and bitterness spewed frequently.
It would have been really terrific to hear someone who was successful and happy with her life and the balance speak honestly about how one can't "do it all" at any one time, but that stages are important to think about and also talk about what defines success for the individual and not the group. That one ADVANCE workshop was powerful...but it's not enough to change a life.
If men start to discuss their complete lives in addition to more women, I think we will have a real chance of seeing all young people find science a more attractive career.
Hi Laura,
I guess it was possible to think of Gall as Joan's role model, but now that there are women in most fields, we should be able to find some who are women and be inspired by them. I just hope they get out there and visit high schools, be the "killer scientist" that Jennifer encountered, and don't just stay in their labs dinking around with their own microfuge tubes and forgetting the need to help the next generation.
CAR
Hi Sunny,
I know what you mean. I can hear in Joan's voice when she talks about people asking her to be the first woman who did something, the grit she had to summon to say yes. Her family raised her with the idea that she should leave the world better than she found it, and she felt deeply that she couldn't step back just because it was hard. But she didn't take on things unless she believed in them. I'm thankful for her and the other First Females who broke the ice for so many of us to follow. I know in some fields, they are still having to open those doors, and I wish I could help.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Laura,
I've had both male and female role models. The older I get, the more I appreciate the female ones with families, the kind of thing you talk about in your memoir. It helps me have confidence that I can put my life together with all the parts I want it to have. I know it will be hard, but it's important to me. I'd hate to have to be the only person who had made it work as a woman in a STEM field. I think in engineering and CS, it still feels to some women about like it felt to Joan Steitz back in the 1960s.
SK
