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Take a minute to close your eyes and picture a “scientist.” What images immediately come to mind? What are they wearing and where are they working? What’s their gender, their race, or their ability? If you immediately pictured a cisgender white man wearing a white lab coat, you aren’t alone.
In a 1983 study , less than 1% of children participating drew a female scientist when asked the same question. In 2009, that number jumped to 35% of children surveyed. Why? Because partic ipation and representation in textbooks and media matter. In the time between the two studies, the amount of women pursuing higher education in science and engineering increased , and in some cases almost doubled. A 2014 study found that countries with higher percentages of women receiving science degrees and/or participating in science research had weaker stereotypes about genders in science.
Science can lead us, with each iteration, nearer to the truth. But that doesn t mean that some of its greatest practitioners weren t sometimes way off the mark. Albert Einstein, despite rewriting physics, was wrong about more than a few things. Isaac Newton believed in alchemy and devoted a significant portion of his life to creating a Philosopher s Stone (the making gold kind, not the
Harry Potter kind). Edmond Halley, most famous for his discovery that a periodically appearing celestial object was in fact an orbiting comet, believed with his whole heart that the Earth was hollow. He also believed life thrived within the hidden underground spaces of our planet.
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