A Lab of One's Own
One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science
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- $22.99
Publisher Description
A “beautifully written” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) memoir-manifesto from the first female director of the National Science Foundation about the entrenched sexism in science, the elaborate detours women have take to bypass the problem, and how to fix the system.
If you think sexism thrives only on Wall Street or Hollywood, you haven’t visited a lab, a science department, a research foundation, or a biotech firm.
Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America: the groundbreaking microbiologist who discovered how cholera survives between epidemics and the former head of the National Science Foundation. But when she first applied for a graduate fellowship in bacteriology, she was told, “We don’t waste fellowships on women.” A lack of support from some male superiors would lead her to change her area of study six times before completing her PhD.
A Lab of One’s Own is an “engaging” (Booklist) book that documents all Colwell has seen and heard over her six decades in science, from sexual harassment in the lab to obscure systems blocking women from leading professional organizations or publishing their work. Along the way, she encounters other women pushing back against the status quo, including a group at MIT who revolt when they discover their labs are a fraction of the size of their male colleagues.
Resistance gave female scientists special gifts: forced to change specialties so many times, they came to see things in a more interdisciplinary way, which turned out to be key to making new discoveries in the 20th and 21st centuries. Colwell would also witness the advances that could be made when men and women worked together—often under her direction, such as when she headed a team that helped to uncover the source of anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks.
A Lab of One’s Own is “an inspiring read for women embarking on a career or experiencing career challenges” (Library Journal, starred review) that shares the sheer joy a scientist feels when moving toward a breakthrough, and the thrill of uncovering a whole new generation of female pioneers. It is the science book for the #MeToo era, offering an astute diagnosis of how to fix the problem of sexism in science—and a celebration of women pushing back.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Colwell (Vibrio Ecology, Pathogenesis and Evolution), first female director of the National Science Foundation, delivers a well-intentioned but disappointing career memoir. She describes facing institutional sexism as a student in the 1960s and how, despite it, she amassed an impressive resume in academe, government, and the private sector. Some of her experiences make for potentially enjoyable stories, such as the research she conducted into cholera transmission at a remote research station in Bangladesh in 1976, which resulted in her developing "new theories about how contagious diseases propagate, how weather patterns and climate change can affect them, and how space satellites can predict epidemics." Elsewhere, she describes how, as a member of the CIA's Intelligence Science Board during the '90s, she urged fellow board members to take the threat of bioterrorism seriously, a warning that proved prescient when anthrax-laced letters were delivered throughout the country in 2001. Unfortunately, these and other triumphs are rendered in a stilted writing style, and Colwell's undeniably impressive track record is marred by excess self-praise. Young women considering careers in science may profit from reading about her experiences, but other readers need not apply.
