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alliebookworm's review against another edition
2.0
I found this book incredibly boring. The title makes you think it'll be an examination of women's experiences and reactions to being in the sciences, but the entire first half (and then some) is devoted to the author's story of her experience. It's like reading memoirs of someone you don't know and never really wanted to know. The second half gets a little more interesting as she broadens the perspective by meeting with others and sharing the research, but it still gets boring. It's a depressing story, and it needs to be told - but she tells it over and over and over again. Glad this book is out there to raise awareness of these unconscious biases, but I was also pretty bored.
melindagallagher's review against another edition
4.0
I very much enjoyed Eileen Pollack's book about her experience as the only girl majoring in Physics at her high school in New York and Yale in the 1970's and 80's. I love her anecdotes and her interviews with young female mathematicians and scientists and the discrimination and issues that they face. It is funny and very informative. Great discussions for our Women in STEM book club!
gcullman's review against another edition
4.0
Really excellent combo memoir think piece about why girls are turned off from pursuing careers in science. Great writing. Fascinating to learn her story.
nukie19's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to love this book. I wanted to read more about other women's experiences in science and how to help encourage more women to join the field. With a subtitle of "Why Science is Still a Boy's Club," I fully expected to read about those things. However, Pollack waits until the epilogue to address this issue, and spends very little of the book doing so. Instead, she spends chapter after chapter discussing her personal experiences as a physics undergrad - which in and of itself wasn't really the problem, had the book been touted as her memoir. Having been a physics undergrad (and now working in a male-dominated military field), her experiences resonated with me and reflected many of the biases I have faced and I expect many woman like me have.
The real problem with this book is that Pollack takes her reactions to those biases and makes sweeping generalizations about those reactions just being because she was a woman. No reference to the idea that her reactions might have been skewed by her anxiety disorder or depression (which she admits to having) rather than her gender alone. Or the fact that she spends over one hundred pages talking about dropping out of physics and only one line talking about her leaving the Marshall scholarship she received in a different field.
All in all, the fact that this book exists is a good thing. There are a few great nuggets of ideas and information that I found really insightful, but all in all, it could have been summed up in an Atlantic article rather than a full length book. The title alone may lead to further discussions and research on the topic of women in STEM, which we certainly need more of. Now, if I could only find a book that delivers on the promise of breaking down this issue more - that is a book I want to read.
The real problem with this book is that Pollack takes her reactions to those biases and makes sweeping generalizations about those reactions just being because she was a woman. No reference to the idea that her reactions might have been skewed by her anxiety disorder or depression (which she admits to having) rather than her gender alone. Or the fact that she spends over one hundred pages talking about dropping out of physics and only one line talking about her leaving the Marshall scholarship she received in a different field.
All in all, the fact that this book exists is a good thing. There are a few great nuggets of ideas and information that I found really insightful, but all in all, it could have been summed up in an Atlantic article rather than a full length book. The title alone may lead to further discussions and research on the topic of women in STEM, which we certainly need more of. Now, if I could only find a book that delivers on the promise of breaking down this issue more - that is a book I want to read.
_eleanor_'s review against another edition
2.0
if I had a swear jar with me while I read this book...
shelbylm31's review
5.0
I expected this to be the classic story about how women are perceived to be underrepresented in science because they are unwilling to sacrifice their family, and therefore need to work harder in order to overcome the stigma that they simply are not intelligent/committed enough. Instead, it explored the various cultural and sociological barriers that prevent women from pursuing higher ed in STEM, mainly their need for more encouragement to keep going. Not because they are any less capable than men in the same fields, but because they have been raised to lack confidence that comes naturally to many men in scientific and mathematical fields.
Pollack explores both her love for the humanities and her love for the sciences, as well as the fine line of trying to balance both, particularly the defeat she felt in walking away from physics to instead pursue the "easier" task of writing (though she does realize that the reputation of the humanities as easier is not indeed fair). She addressed women in STEM from a different perspective than what I am used to, as well as discussed a wide number of related topics that I didn't realize I had been needing to hear.
Pollack explores both her love for the humanities and her love for the sciences, as well as the fine line of trying to balance both, particularly the defeat she felt in walking away from physics to instead pursue the "easier" task of writing (though she does realize that the reputation of the humanities as easier is not indeed fair). She addressed women in STEM from a different perspective than what I am used to, as well as discussed a wide number of related topics that I didn't realize I had been needing to hear.