I am currently reading Hidden Figures - finally - by Margot Lee Shetterly and I had a thought about Women in STEM...
I’m only on the prologue but Shetterly explains,
...the surprisingly large numbers of black and white women who had been hiding in a profession seen as universally white and male, the body of work they left behind was a revelation.”
When I hear, "we need more women in tech," I'm wondering have women always been in STEM but just never got the recognition they deserved hence why we never learn about them? Have they just been verbally demoted to "the girls," human computers, that have been overshadowed and virtually erased by their male "lead scientists."
As someone who has a foundation in art it makes me think of women like Katsushika Ōi, the daughter of the famous painter Hokusai (The Great Wave off Kanagawa) who finished many of his paintings. Have we just been given the titles of assistants rather than recognizing ourselves as painters and scientists etc in our own right?
Top comments (3)
These are great questions to reflect on, Courtney. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. My guess is that there is ample research in psychology and sociology that has explored these questions in depth. I would be interested to see what it can teach us all about our own behavior, as well as the behavior of those in the past.
Have you watched the film? If so, how does it compare to the book?
I've watched it but imagine that the book's better, as they usually are :)
I have not! I am pretty rigid about reading the book first before seeing any movie adaptation. When I do I will come back and share my thoughts 👍🏼