12 Women Scientists

October 12, 2015

Since ForCarol.com is education oriented, I thought this TED article introducing “12 Badass” women scientists might of interest.

Here is a short quote from the article. To read more about these amazing women scientists, please go to the article.

“Everywhere you look, odds appear stacked against women in STEM. Young male scientists receive up to twice as much funding as their female counterparts in Boston’s biomedical research institutions, a global research hub. Only 30% of the world’s researchers are women, and women hold fewer than 25% of STEM jobs in the US. In fact, one recent survey found67% of Europeans and 93% of Chinese respondents don’t even believe women have the skills to do science — and Nobel Prize-winning biochemist Tim Hunt thinks women cause “trouble” in the lab.

But take a look at the above portrait, which was taken by photographer Bret Hartman at the TED Fellows Retreat in Pacific Grove, California in August 2015. These 12 scientists represent a range of disciplines — from astrophysics, biology, genetics, archaeology, medicine, glaciology, data science and more — and represent 5 countries around the world. They also happen to all be women. And while a portrait like this one shouldn’t be extraordinary in 2015, it sadly is — highlighting a very real, very large gender gap in the sciences.

“This week, a cab driver asked me, ‘What do men say when you tell them you’re a scientist? Because you don’t look like a scientist,’” marine biologist Kristen Marhaver says. “In this picture, I see a twinkle in each of our eyes, saying, ‘No, that’s the thing, sir. I do look like a scientist.’”

Get to know these extraordinary women and their groundbreaking work in the short bios in this article on TED“