Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
The Only Woman in the Room
- Why Science Is Still a Boys' Club
- Narrated by: Gayle Hendrix
- Length: 11 hrs and 37 mins
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
Buy Now for £18.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Summary
Named one of the notable nonfiction books of 2015 by The Washington Post.
A bracingly honest exploration of why there are still so few women in the hard sciences, mathematics, engineering, and computer science.
In 2005, when Lawrence Summers, then president of Harvard, asked why so few women, even today, achieve tenured positions in the hard sciences, Eileen Pollack set out to find the answer. A successful fiction writer, Pollack had grown up in the 1960s and '70s dreaming of a career as a theoretical astrophysicist. Denied the chance to take advanced courses in science and math, she nonetheless made her way to Yale. There, despite finding herself far behind the men in her classes, she went on to graduate summa cum laude, with honors, as one of the university's first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, starved for encouragement, she abandoned her ambition to become a physicist.
Years later, spurred by the suggestion that innate differences in scientific and mathematical aptitude might account for the dearth of tenured female faculty at Summer's institution, Pollack thought back on her own experiences and wondered what, if anything, had changed in the intervening decades.
Based on six years interviewing her former teachers and classmates as well as dozens of other women who had dropped out before completing their degrees in science or found their careers less rewarding than they had hoped, The Only Woman in the Room is a bracingly honest, no-holds-barred examination of the social, interpersonal, and institutional barriers confronting women - and minorities - in the STEM fields. This frankly personal and informed book reflects on women's experiences in a way that simple data can't, documenting not only the more blatant bias of another era but all the subtle disincentives women in the sciences still face.
The Only Woman in the Room shows us the struggles women in the sciences have been hesitant to admit and provides hope for changing attitudes and behaviors in ways that could bring far more women into fields in which even today they remain seriously underrepresented.
More from the same
What listeners say about The Only Woman in the Room
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Ladyfilosopher
- 08-05-23
Wow! humane and scientific narrative of gendered e
As stated in the epilogue: while demonstrations that show sexism as an active factor, are proof that sexism exists, narratives that in certain lives sexism seems not to have been present is NOT proof that sexism does not exist. Her rigourous scientific skills set is wonderfully enhanced by her humble intuitive awareness of social constraints. I, too, cringed at her crushing on teachers and wanting a boyfriend. I am only 1 year older than the author. I grew up around that giggle cluster in eastern seaboard, USA.i also noted the cruelty exercised by others, girls and boys. Boys were the friends to run roughshod around with, girls for sharing, a chat and jump rope. All the same, years later, in a 'glamorous' job, many unusual male based jobs under my belt, I realised the pressures I had been slipping out from under even as a child. I , too wanted to attend university but had no guidance. No one knew my mind or full potential, or offered mentorship. "Be a secretary, move up in business, Break that glass ceiling, Burn your bra". Pollack is clear that her experience is unique she is also rigourous to find out in what way it wasn't. Please read this book, and-or please listen to this book. I will be purchasing paper version soon for the hints she gives about writing and how scientific method is relevant.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Roxana
- 28-04-23
interesting
it would be interesting to see an update especially now with the very extensive use of social media
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!