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The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
Top of the pile
87
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
94/100Critics
81/100Scholars
Author:
Kate Zernike
Publisher:
Scribner
Date:
February 28, 2023
In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted to discriminating against its most senior female scientists. It was a seismic cultural eventâone that forced institutions across the nation to reckon with the bias faced by girls and women in STEM. The Exceptions is the story of the women on MIT's faculty who started it all, centered on the life and career of their unlikely leader: Nancy Hopkins, a noted molecular geneticist and cancer researcher and protegee of James Watson, the c-odiscoverer of the structure of DNA.
What The Reviewers Say
Excellent and infuriating.
Absorbing.
Zernike relies heavily on Hopkins’s notes, diaries, and memories in this account, and it shows. One longs to hear the responses from her alleged detractors.
Zernike’s book is a inspiring but often infuriating account of the ways that MIT had discriminated against some of the brightest scientists in their fields. It’s also a cautionary tale of how easily workplace discrimination can take root, even among academics who consider themselves well-intentioned.
