I have always prided myself on many things in my life, but there are two things that I hold very dear and have made me who I am today. 1) I am a woman, and 2) I am a scientist. I have loved science since I was a small child. Everything from playing in streams, finding snakes in the woods, spending time on farms, and always showing the most interest in my science classes, I was thirsty for as much knowledge as science could provide to me. This love was severely tested in my high school years however. I attended an all girls catholic high school and their motto was, "Empowering young women". And at the time it seemed a good motto. However, as I got older and spent more time with my family ad grandmother, I began to learn more domestic skills. I can now cook, bake, sew, knit, embroider, and do essentially everything involving babies and young children. I really started to question who I wanted to be. For a long time I had wanted to be a veterinarian, animals were the forefront of my scientific passion. But, my life experiences had started pushing me towards being a mom and having a family. From this life choice, from wanting to be a vet to wanting to be a mom, I actually lost a lot of friends. My friends would ask, "Why do you want to be a mom? We are EMPOWERED women! We can be anything we want to be, like I'm gonna be a CEO, and you want to be stuck at home changing diapers? Lame!" Now I never was able to fully explain to my friends that I didn't want to give up an academic career, I just wanted to be able to continue learning science but still have a family, which seemed a foreign concept to many. Many people even today question my choices saying things such as, "oh well if you have a career, how will you spend time with your kids, they are going to grow up bad because they don't have a very present mom in their lives!" And most times I will just look at them like this: Seriously! What on earth 1) gives you the right to question my life choices? and 2) why do I have to sacrifice one thing for another? And this is very much how a lot of people view women in science related fields. Even though it isn't the normal view point any more, a lot of people still think a woman's "place" is in the home, taking care of the children, and that women cannot balance a career and a family (even though it seems that men can). But there is a way that we can make the field of science more gender friendly, and it is through positive action. And I will say this loud so everyone can hear me: It is NOT enough to have positive thoughts or feelings, they MUST be backed by positive ACTION!!! This means that it is all well and good to say we should have more women in science, but nothing is going to change unless we make some actual changes to how we view women in science by actually putting them in leadership positions to begin making those changes.
6 Comments
Natalia
11/1/2015 09:56:51 am
I very much stand by your views presented here. I also prescribe to the hope that someday I can be the super cool scientist mom that also knits her kids sweaters and cooks dinner. My question would be, as an extension of the ideas presented here, what would your suggested actions be to fix this problem of narrow-mindedness? Not a particularly deep question, but I think it is a very important one.
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Nikita
11/1/2015 10:44:42 am
Wow, I really feel like you really nailed this one. I think it really shows the whole point of being an empowered woman and standing up for what you believe in. Along with Natalia, I would also like to know what actions we could be taking. I think everything else was clear and well said. To the future Super Cool Science Moms we will be one day!
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Devon Smith
11/2/2015 06:07:56 am
YES! ALL THE YES!
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Ryan
11/2/2015 02:56:19 pm
I also hate when I hear people ask women what their "choice" is going to be, mom or career. Personally, I would love to be a stay at home dad is the finances work out that way, and I am not ashamed to admit that even if it against the social norm. But you did hit the nail on the head that there doesn't have to be a choice where one overtakes the other.
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Anna
11/3/2015 08:35:39 am
I like the approach you took to this topic especially with what we know about you and what we have talked about with your life.
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drann
11/5/2015 06:54:00 am
You must be true to yourself at ALL times.... follow you own path and remember... "It is none of your business what other people think of you..." - Eleanor Roosevelt. I find this quote to be empowering, right?
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AuthorHey, my name's Mary Beth and I am starting this blog to document my journey in becoming a high school life science/ chemistry teacher. Archives
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