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3.63 AVERAGE
3.63 AVERAGE
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Eileen Pollack was one of the first women to graduate with a degree in physics from Yale. However, her path was not an easy one because of her gender. Eileen looks back at her education and and academic career to try and figure out the plight of women in science in her semi-autobiographical The Only Women in the Room. Though there are many more women in the sciences now, women are still vastly outnumbered by men especially in sciences such as physics, math and technology.
Eileen examines her childhood and college career in order to use her experience as an example of the problems and internal struggles women in sciences have faced and still may have issues with. In the latter half, Eileen interviews women in sciences currently and sights recent studies about women in sciences to base her conclusions on. As Eileen recounted her struggles throughout her elementary and high school studies, I was amazed at how many times she was held back and her interests and intelligence were discounted. Despite all of that, Eileen was determined to get a degree in physics. She was accepted into Yale and succeeded, but not without many struggles. One of the things that Eileen found out was that though she thought she was doing far worse than any of the males in her classes, she was actually doing much better. Her struggles resulted from many of the males in her classes receiving more encouragement throughout their academic career resulting in the ability to appear confident and belief that they were doing well and had a grasp on the material. Another pitfall Eileen ran into was comfort level being the only or one of few females in many of her classes. Taught by male professors who may also not have been comfortable. This is one of the issues that is carried over to women today and in some cases, I have faced myself. Eileen found that women need steady, outward encouragement and nourishment in their confidence level. Overall, this was an interesting, introspective and eye-opening look at women in the sciences.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
Eileen examines her childhood and college career in order to use her experience as an example of the problems and internal struggles women in sciences have faced and still may have issues with. In the latter half, Eileen interviews women in sciences currently and sights recent studies about women in sciences to base her conclusions on. As Eileen recounted her struggles throughout her elementary and high school studies, I was amazed at how many times she was held back and her interests and intelligence were discounted. Despite all of that, Eileen was determined to get a degree in physics. She was accepted into Yale and succeeded, but not without many struggles. One of the things that Eileen found out was that though she thought she was doing far worse than any of the males in her classes, she was actually doing much better. Her struggles resulted from many of the males in her classes receiving more encouragement throughout their academic career resulting in the ability to appear confident and belief that they were doing well and had a grasp on the material. Another pitfall Eileen ran into was comfort level being the only or one of few females in many of her classes. Taught by male professors who may also not have been comfortable. This is one of the issues that is carried over to women today and in some cases, I have faced myself. Eileen found that women need steady, outward encouragement and nourishment in their confidence level. Overall, this was an interesting, introspective and eye-opening look at women in the sciences.
This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
informative
I think I couldn't get into this book because I already know a lot about this topic. Maybe I'll pick it up again at another time.
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.
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!
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.