Women in science
Dec. 6th, 2010 05:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccastareyesReading blogs, and I got this from Pharyngula. Dr. Myers notes that he likes to throw a few softballs at his students at exam time so that the folks who show up/do the reading/pay attention get some points. One of the questions he normally asks is "Name a scientist, any scientist, who also happens to be a woman."
Note that this is a biology class that mentions many biologists. Dr. Myers also notes that the second-most-common is 'Jane Goodall' (who was also not mentioned in the course). Third was 'Louise Pasteur', which... well, I guess showing that many people are confused by French noun gender. So, Dr. Myers offered a challenge -- name 10 female scientists who were not Marie Curie (or Goodall).
... I got about 18 before I realized I was starting to name friends. But I did get at least ten people I have never actually met or heard speaking. Reading the comments brought me a few more professionals of things I wasn't sure if they counted as 'science'.
So, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to name as many female scientists as you can. You can use Google to check name spellings, but not to, say, match up 'that one that discovered the thing'. (Scientists may want to either exempt themselves from the challenge or limit it to 'people who are not working in my field and/or who I know personally'.)
And, if we're being fair, see if you can name as many male scientists -- just to control for people who don't know many scientists at all.
About 10% of the class leave it blank. C'mon, it's a free 2 points on a 100 point exam! Over half the time, I get the same mysterious answer: Marie Curie. We do not talk about Marie Curie in this class at all, and it's always a bit strange that they have to cast their minds back over a century to come up with a woman scientist. Next year, I should change the question to "Name a scientist, any scientist, who also happens to be a woman, and isn't named Marie Curie," just to screw with their heads. They won't be able to think of anyone but Marie Curie.
Note that this is a biology class that mentions many biologists. Dr. Myers also notes that the second-most-common is 'Jane Goodall' (who was also not mentioned in the course). Third was 'Louise Pasteur', which... well, I guess showing that many people are confused by French noun gender. So, Dr. Myers offered a challenge -- name 10 female scientists who were not Marie Curie (or Goodall).
... I got about 18 before I realized I was starting to name friends. But I did get at least ten people I have never actually met or heard speaking. Reading the comments brought me a few more professionals of things I wasn't sure if they counted as 'science'.
So, your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to name as many female scientists as you can. You can use Google to check name spellings, but not to, say, match up 'that one that discovered the thing'. (Scientists may want to either exempt themselves from the challenge or limit it to 'people who are not working in my field and/or who I know personally'.)
And, if we're being fair, see if you can name as many male scientists -- just to control for people who don't know many scientists at all.
