Take a photo of a barcode or cover
A review by kimreadz
The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boys' Club by Eileen Pollack
3.0
It’s taken me a long time to get to the point where I can write a review of this book and not a lengthy rebuttal, because this is a book that caused me to shake my head frequently. I went through school just a few years before this author, and I have to say, my experiences as a science major were nothing like hers! I could go on, but…
I think the main thing to know about this book is that despite the synopsis, this is not really a study or analysis of the role of women in science and how that may have changed. This is really a memoir about the author’s experience as a science major and her explanations for her failed expectations. Ellen grew up thinking she wanted to be a scientist, but for all the wrong reasons. Though she never seems to realize this herself, her passion is not science, but is writing. Her motivation for studying science at an ‘elite’ university seems to be that it makes her feel like she is better than the ‘common’ people. Obviously she feels that writers are second class citizens compared to scientists. Her arrogance and elitism really annoyed me, particularly when she mentioned a ‘public Midwest university’ with a tone of disdain.
Another thing that was extremely annoying to me was that she assigned her difficulty with math to the prevalence of sports-related examples in math books. She seems to imply that interest in sports is gender-based, which I assume we all know is not true — at all!
If you enjoy memoirs, you may enjoy this one, but it is important to realize that this is a story of one woman’s experiences in her quest to become a scientist, and the way she has dealt with the might-have-been and if-only. The experiences should not be generalized or assumed to reflect the experiences of all, or even most, women. If you are looking for that book you need to keep looking!
I received a review copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.
I think the main thing to know about this book is that despite the synopsis, this is not really a study or analysis of the role of women in science and how that may have changed. This is really a memoir about the author’s experience as a science major and her explanations for her failed expectations. Ellen grew up thinking she wanted to be a scientist, but for all the wrong reasons. Though she never seems to realize this herself, her passion is not science, but is writing. Her motivation for studying science at an ‘elite’ university seems to be that it makes her feel like she is better than the ‘common’ people. Obviously she feels that writers are second class citizens compared to scientists. Her arrogance and elitism really annoyed me, particularly when she mentioned a ‘public Midwest university’ with a tone of disdain.
Another thing that was extremely annoying to me was that she assigned her difficulty with math to the prevalence of sports-related examples in math books. She seems to imply that interest in sports is gender-based, which I assume we all know is not true — at all!
If you enjoy memoirs, you may enjoy this one, but it is important to realize that this is a story of one woman’s experiences in her quest to become a scientist, and the way she has dealt with the might-have-been and if-only. The experiences should not be generalized or assumed to reflect the experiences of all, or even most, women. If you are looking for that book you need to keep looking!
I received a review copy of this book through the Library Thing Early Reviewers program.