“Too Pretty to Be a Geologist” By Paula Alejandra Sarmiento Linares Translated by Adrián Grijalba In my life, a few times I have been told the quote that titles this writing. The first time, I was a fresh-woman at geology major, and it came for someone (male, white, heterosexual, with a fancy degree) who spoke in a flattering tone. I will not lie to you, I was flattered because I felt I stood out among many women, not only because of my physical appearance (as, for this person, I should look like the undesirable stereotype of scientific woman that roots on what is depicted in The Big Bang Theory, something like Amy Farrah Fowler), but also because it included me within the low percentage of women who engage in a university major to which, moreover, few have the chance (or interest) of belonging. This type of comments raises a few questions: ¿Is it really flattering to say that a woman is too pretty to be a geologist, scientist or engineer? What if we change the word “pretty” to “Latin-American”, “emotional” or “woman”, does it make any sense? ¿Is it OK that the percentage of women enrolled or interested in science majors is as low as it is? There is a wrong idea that says that science was made for men, based on groundless arguments: during elementary and middle school, there is an emphasis on boys to be successful in subjects such as mathematics of physics while, on girls, it is directed towards languages and human sciences. From their early years, it is imposed on women the idea that their role within a community is to perform care and house-holding tasks; similar to the economic systems, where women are frequently enrolled as nurses, assistants, or secretaries; while men are destined to engage in roles demanding ingenuity and creativity that lead to great discoveries (mind the saying “behind every great man, there is a great woman” -wink wink-). For society, the rational aspects are always related to masculinity and emotional aspects to femininity, thus male are considered the fittest to engage in science, not women: on 2016, less than 30% of world researchers were women (United Nations, 2016) and on 2019, female personnel in science-related charges in the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC, for the acronym in Spanish) amounted to 35.9 % (Comisión de Mujeres y Ciencia del CSIC, 2019). Sadly, these prejudices were depicted in a study conducted by Inoaka Amarasekara, an Australian researcher in communication sciences, with the collaboration of Will Grant, where they showed how is it more difficult the path to becoming scientific communicators in YouTube for women, in comparison to men. According to the numbers, female communicators had a much higher proportion or commentaries related to their appearance (4.5 % for women against 1.4 % for men) and sexist or sexual (almost 3 % for women against 0.25 % for men) (Jeffries, 2018). These arguments, besides the insults disguised as compliments towards female scientists or engineers, may constitute dangerous discourses that lead to discrimination (from racism to xenophobia), all kinds of harassment, abuse of authority, patronization, lack of validation of female intellectual contribution, among many other issues based on stigmatization on what women are able, or not, to do, say or feel. Another main reason why infant and adolescent girls are not interested in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) is the lack of visibility of female role models in elementary and middle school. Just as the dinosaur extinction is not the only great extinction in the history of earth, Marie Sklodowska Curie is not the only model of a scientist woman. Women like Margaret Hamilton, considered the first software engineer, whose role in Apollo XI mission was vital (López, 2017); more currently, Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna, Nobel Prize in Chemistry of this year, or Katie Bouman, the woman behind the capture of the first photograph of a black hole; all are great examples that women have a great relevance in sciences. There are also women such as Hedy Lamarr, Austrian inventor of RF waves retransmission systems (Morrón, 2015), who, besides her great career in the cinema industry, was also the first actress to appear naked on the big screen; or one of the protagonists of The Big Bang Theory series, who is also a writer, singer and doctor in neurosciences, Mayim Chaya Bialik, and also has a great artistic career (apart from the awful role she had to embody in the aforementioned series): These women are proof that we should not be biased. It is not necessary to have a girl lose her interest in aesthetics, arts, or anything that may be within her heart in order for she to be interested in planets, numbers, chemistry and other related areas. As a matter of fact, when a human being is highly interested in both topics, becomes able to correlate them and contribute in both fields. As women, it is difficult to face the challenges raising from the struggle against these dogmas and to gain a place within the scientific community, which is not impossible, and is a responsibility of all, men and women who belong in this community. Time has shown that science is not only for men and they should not be the bearers of our access to academic opportunities. We are able to go abroad to complete a major, validate the knowledge we develop though our projects, and many other things we would be able to do on our own if those gender prejudices were not present. Neither should these opportunities be reduced to us based on the lifestyle we choose or the interests we have. Finally, being pretty, women or Latin-American does not make us less intelligent, empowered or scientists. This year I was told again that I was too pretty to be a geologist. This was no longer a compliment for me, but the reminder of the struggle of female scientist to build our path and place in the academic and work fields related to sciences, of the difficult, yet satisfactory, this has been, and the excuse to write this Blog entry. Thank you so much to the editors of GeolatinasBlog, Ale and Angelique for letting me be the voice in front of this important issue and making a little place for me in their awesome initiative. I would also like to say thank you to the work group and the editors Adriana and Adrián. And also, you, thank you for reading. Author's notes: Many of the ideas herein mentioned are retrieved from friends', colleagues' and own anecdotes. It is sad we had to go through these experiences, but these are what gives us the drive to let everyone know women are here, in the sciences, to stay. These ideas are also supported by the podcast “Womansplaining”, specifically in the episodes: “¡Marie Curie no existe!” and “¡No puedes usar esa trusa sexy en el laboratorio!” , which I fully recommend. References
Comisión de Mujeres y Ciencia del CSIC. (2019). Informe Mujeres Investigadoras. Madrid, Spain: Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Jeffries, A. (July 18, 2018) Las dificultades que enfrentan las mujeres que hacen ciencia en YouTube. The New York Times. López, A. (June 7, 2017). Margaret Hamilton: “La primera ingeniera de software”. Retrieved from Mujeres con ciencia: https://mujeresconciencia.com/2017/06/07/margaret-hamilton-la-primera-ingeniera-software/ Morrón , L. (November 30, 2015). Hedy Lamarr, la inventora. Retrieved from Mujeres con ciencia: https://mujeresconciencia.com/2015/11/30/hedy-lamarr-la-inventora/ United Nations. (2016). Women and girls in science day. Retrieved from https://www.un.org/es/observances/women-and-girls-in-science-day/
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29/9/2022 05:51:25 am
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