Writing about Women in Science II: Yvonne Brill: Was Her Obituary Fair?
Dear Friend of women in science,
A giant of rocket science recently passed away, Yvonne Brill. She had an obituary in the New York Times (by no means a slam dunk for any famous woman) but then, there was a massive negative reaction. Let me reprint the first two paragraphs of the obituary so you'll understand the comments:
"She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job and took eight years off from work to raise three children. "The world's best mom," her son Matthew said.
But Yvonne Brill, who died on Wednesday at 88 in Princeton, N.J., was also a brilliant rocket scientist who in the early 1970s invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites from slipping out of their orbits."
This was certainly the kind of story that the Finkbeiner test was trying to prevent. The whole focus was NOT her achievements in rocket science, but the miracle that a WOMAN was able to be a rocket scientist! And she cooks too! Not very respectful, and although in part I of this series I argued that we might not need to strictly follow the Finkbeiner Rules, I think this time I really wish the author had done just that.
Margaret Sullivan followed up in an Op Ed article making these same points, and said, "Amy Davidson, a senior editor at The New Yorker who writes its Close Read blog, said on Twitter that it was striking how Mrs. Brill's "work was both mentioned and somehow invisible," given the emphasis in the obituary. Ms. Davidson also noted that the eight years off from work apparently wasn't entirely the case; Mrs. Brill continued to work part time as a consultant during those years, the obituary said further down."
Sullivan says she talked with William McDonald, the obituaries editor, and "'I'm surprised,' he said. 'It never occurred to us that this would be read as sexist.' He said it was important for obituaries to put people in the context of their time and that this well-written obituary did that effectively." Douglas Martin, the author of the obituary, expressed his admiration for Brill and said he felt the objections were not well founded, but just based on comments on Twitter rather than on reading the article.
I think he could have mentioned some of these things near the bottom of the article; it was framing it as "look, a talking dog!" that made it seem disrespectful. I still would have liked to hear her family details, although her recipes do seem off-topic too far to me. I've commented before on that.
What do you think? Should this article have mentioned her beef stroganoff first and rocket science later on? Should her family situation have been mentioned at all?
cheers,
Laura
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Hi Laura!
I admit I initially felt defensive of the NYT Obit. My mom is an accomplished police sergeant and SWAT team hostage negotiator, and I’ve always relished the “element of surprise” when introducing her, as a way of subtly challenging people’s perceptions of women and power -- sometimes I intentionally emphasize the parts of her personality that I think don’t align with society’s ideas about who would be on a SWAT team. People express a sense of surprise when I do tell them what she does, and somehow I feel that’s constructive – people often aren’t aware of the assumptions and expectations they have for women, and in this scenario are forced to confront them. I think people wonder: "why was I so surprised?" I thought that strategy might apply to this scenario.
Also, an obit is a reflection on someone’s life, but it’s also a part of the healing process for their family. I like to be reminded that powerful, influential people that have contributed to something larger than themselves are also loved by the people closest to them for very small and seemingly trivial things – families grieve the loss of those things because they’re entwined with that simple day-to-day life presence that is lost.
That said, reading the whole first sentence of the obit in context, I do think I agree that there’s something fundamentally wrong with how Yvonne Brill’s accomplishments were framed here. I do think it under-emphasizes her amazing career. If there is something to be said for not introducing her work in the first line, as a subtle tool for empowerment as I mentioned above, I don’t think that was intended here, and not the place for it either.
Dear Laura,
I think that Patricia Fara's article that you told us about last week (biographies article) applies here too. We don't want to be seen as Weird Sisters, but the news media sees us either as stay-at-home-moms or as weird sisters. We'd like to appear as well-rounded humans with success in science at work and with family at home.
Rose Ann
Hi Arianne,
I love the phrase "piddles around with rocket science!" As though that were even possible... I know NASA isn't out advertising for been stroganoff cooks, and NYT isn't begging to write obits on them either.
cheers,
Laura
Hi Marian,
Exactly, we want readers of these articles to see a human doing science, not a weird sister as the recent article in Nature claimed women scientist appear to be. So including some of this information is not bad. It just needs to be made clear that the person has been doing a particular kind of outstanding STEM work FIRST! Then some of these humanizing details can be given without disrespect for her science achievements.
cheers,
Laura
Laura
I have no problem with a discussion of her cooking skills and that she was a great mom. However, I too believe that they should have come after the discussion of her work as a scientist. (I agree with your talking dog analogy.)
One of the things I work hard with among young girls is teaching them that they can be scientists and still moms, cooks, etc., that they can be scientists and not be "weird". This is a perfect example of a story that could have had that spin and been encouraging to all.
Marian
What's the point of discussing her cooking at all? Aside from her family, who would care what she cooked for dinner? Similarly, who cares that she moved house when her husband did, or even that she was married? I suppose it might be noteworthy that she put her career on hiatus for eight years to parent, but only in the context that she was a brilliant rocket scientist.
I dislike statements that read, "She did amazing things, and she was a woman, too!" If having kids or cooking dinner were at all contradictory to being amazing, then there would be a lot of lonely, hungry geniuses out there. On the other hand, if having kids and cooking dinner were so difficult, then we wouldn't all be doing it. Everyone has a life full of unremarkable daily activities. We go to work, we come home, take care of our families/cats/plants/whatever, and are cared for in return. We feed our families, we do the dishes, we wash the laundry, and we clean the floors and bathrooms, all without super powers.
I can't figure out if commenting on the living habits of a highly accomplished woman reflects the same attitude that creates the glass ceiling, or if the writer believes that men are incapable of managing their daily lives as well as their careers. Is it assumed that accomplished men are unable to feed themselves, and so when an accomplished woman cooks it is an amazing thing?
Hi Laura,
I agree with Arianne. But a lot of it is in the order and framing, as you suggested in the first posting on writing about women scientists. If it said, "A great rocket scientist has passed away," and six paragraphs later, it said "She is also a noted cook,..." I would have had a lot less trouble with using those facts. I'm not really asking, as Finkbeiner is, for writers to totally ignore any family life of women scientists. If for no other reason, they add to attractiveness of such careers for young women, in many cases.
MRC
Laura-- This is disgraceful for the NYT to do, let alone to defend it. I think they need to take some sensitivity training! She cooks well! Ah, well she also piddles around with rocket science. That's the feeling I get reading it. They wouldn't do an obit on someone who makes great beef stroganoff and had nothing else to offer the world, so why in the world feature that as the lead??
Arianne
