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A Lab of One’s Own: One Woman’s Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science
Maybe someday
49
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
80/100Critics
17/100Scholars
Author:
Rita Colwell, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne
Publisher:
Simon Schuster
Date:
August 4, 2020
A memoir-manifesto from the first female director of the National Science Foundation about the entrenched sexism in science, the elaborate detours women have taken to bypass the problem, and how to fix the system.
What The Reviewers Say
In the chapters on cholera and on her work on anthrax Colwell manages with her enthusiasm and vivid prose to share her elation and triumphs even with a non-scientist, though as she notes very often mere scientific success was never a guarantee of recognition, or a smooth upward progression up the career ladder comparable to that of male scientists similarly qualified .. While these closing chapters are not as polished as those preceding them they include some useful observations relative, for example, to anti-discrimination legislation being the bare minimum requirement for change; and to the need for scientists to stop being “unidimensional personalities” and to embrace the humanities as she has done, as well as learning about and working in administration, business, and politics. The era of the pure nerd seems happily to be over, at least in Colwell’s own lab..
...[a] beautifully written memoir.
Colwell...first female director of the National Science Foundation, delivers a well-intentioned but disappointing career memoir.
