
…nists and sexists when those men are highly regarded and respected within the scientific community. After all, sexual harassment isn’t really about sex — it’s about power. As Dr. Gordon phrased it in her presentation, having that power allows harassers to “punish those w…
We come up with excuses for the behavior of people like Watson and Crick for how they treated Rosalind Franklin, and who derailed and discredited female scientists’ careers, for the sake of attributing the discovery of DNA’s structure to them. But had they not found it, perhaps one of the women whose careers they affected would have made that discovery. Perhaps they weren’t so special after all. Perhaps they just occupied a place of privilege and positions of power at the right time.
…sentation at the symposium, she did bring up a point that I found relevant: we are all replaceable. As much as we’d like to think these male geniuses have something more to offer, the fact is, if something in science exists, someone will eventually discover it. Perhaps allowing an 82 year old child molester to return to science is not actually in science’s be…