Book Recommendation: Headstrong by Rachel Swaby
Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science--and the World by Rachel Swaby.
Dr. Tiffany Vora recommends the book Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science— and the World by Rachel Swaby.
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I care a great deal about increasing the impact of women in STEMM. A big piece of that effort is learning their stories and sharing them, particularly with the young women around the world that I have the privilege of mentoring.
That’s probably why several years ago my birthday present from my husband was Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science—and the World, by Rachel Swaby. Swaby’s goal is to set the stage for “treating women in science like scientists instead of anomalies or wives who moonlight in the lab”. Her approach? Crafting 52 short and punchy chapters about women who transformed medicine, biology, physics, math, and technology … and none of them are Marie Curie!
While I was delighted to recognize several of the women highlighted here, it was even better to get a glimpse of the lives of women that I had never heard of. Like Sophie Kowalevski, whose father ran out of wallpaper and so instead used his old calculus lecture notes for the walls of her nursery (she became a pioneering mathematician). Or Mary Putnam Jacobi, who earned two MDs in the late 1860s (no typo there!) and then used a deluge of data to eviscerate the common notion that menstruation made women weak; she even published a paper about the brain tumor that killed her.
💡 Be sure to keep an eye out for how curiosity was sparked in each of these women and how her curiosity was supported in the face of obstacles. I was inspired, over and over, by how many of these women paid forward their hard work to support later generations of women in STEMM.
And in case you’re inspired by these stories, check out these three ideas to help close the STEM gender gap. Now get out there and tell someone about a woman in STEMM!
About Tiffany
Dr. Tiffany Vora speaks, writes, and advises on how to harness technology to build the best possible future(s). She is an expert in biotech, health, & innovation.
For a full list of topics and ways to collaborate, visit Tiffany’s Work Together webpage.
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