Women in Science Now: Stories and Strategies for Achieving Equity

by Lisa M.P. Munoz

Women working in the sciences face obstacles at virtually every step along their career paths. From subtle slights to blatant biases, deep systemic problems block women from advancing or push them out of science and technology entirely.



Women in Science Now examines solutions to this persistent gender gap, offering new perspectives on how to make science more equitable and inclusive for all. This book shares stories and insights of women from a range of backgrounds working in various disciplines, illustrating the journeys that brought them to the sciences, the challenges they faced along the way, and the important contributions they have made to their fields. Lisa M. P. Munoz combines these narratives with a wealth of data to illuminate the size and scope of the challenges women scientists face, while highlighting research-based solutions to help overcome these obstacles. She presents groundbreaking studies in social psychology and organizational behavior that are informing novel approaches for combating historic and ongoing inequities.

Through a combined focus on personal experiences and social-science research, this timely book provides both a path toward greater gender equity and an inspiring vision of science and scientists.

Genres: Science, Nonfiction

ebook

Published October 17, 2023

About the author

Lisa M. P. Munoz is the author of Women in Science Now: Stories and Strategies for Achieving Equity. (Columbia University Press, 2023). She is a science writer and the founder and president of SciComm Services, a science communications consulting firm. A former journalist and press officer, she has more than twenty years of experience crafting science content for scientists and the public alike. Munoz holds an engineering degree from Cornell University.

Reviews

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book on the state of women in science. This is not just theories and studies, but lots personal stories and profiles of women are presented. This is a must-read for anyone in science, basically. It shows the improvements that have already happened, but also that there's still a long way to go. Hopefully I can contribute to the growth and confidence of women in science as well one day.

Thank you so much to the author, publisher and NetGalley for an ARC to read & review. These are my honest opinions.

[Vanessa Bohns · Rating 5 out of 5]

Both rigorous and intimate. The author flawlessly combines first-person accounts of scientists with empirical research to illuminate the problem of representation in science and offer multi-tiered solutions. An invaluable and accessible resource that I will refer to often as a mentor, administrator, and as a woman in science myself.

[Amanda · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a former scientist and current teacher, this book was a really interesting read that shed light on a lot of personal experiences I've experienced myself. I think it's a timely book on an important issue in our society, especially as science becomes such a tool for change in our world.

This would be a great read for science teachers, scientists, and anybody interested in gender equity and raising the next generation as strong, empowered individuals.

I especially loved the profiles of women scientists from all different backgrounds and disciplines of science. I will probably use some of these scientists in my own teaching to show students the possibilities.

From a constructive perspective, parts of chapter seven about alcohol use at conferences seem like it would be better suited in chapter eight. Chapter nine also seemed a bit slow at parts and could possibly have been more concise. I also would've liked to have seen more discussion about the experiences of other genders as well: how do these circumstances affect non-binary individuals and how can we broaden the discussion?

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

This compilation of essays, interviews, and statistics speaks to the current state and situation of women in various scientific disciplines and spheres in the twenty-first century. Exploring different personal essays each chapter, Munoz uses these essays as jumping-off points for each chapter and the content and societal issues she wants to discuss. Focusing on the larger structural and societal issues of the scientific community and its attitude towards its women members, this book addresses the statistical realities that women in STEM face and explores women scientists’ personal experiences with the challenges of these situations. Munoz’s prose and writing style is concise, clear, and direct, and she weaves anecdotes and statistics seamlessly together in this solid nonfiction text. Including images, text boxes, historical context, and continuous references to the keynote essays in each chapter, Munoz has created a fascinating insight into the reality of being a woman in science in the twenty-first century by drawing several stories of several women in different disciplines together to create the larger whole. A great read for academics and non-academics, members of the STEM fields or not, this book is a strong, powerful insight into the current gender climate and disparities in science as experienced by real women who overcame these odds and obstacles to achieve their current levels of scientific success.

Thanks to NetGalley and Columbia University Press for the advance copy.

[Brenda Mitchell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful validating layered facts in women in a number of science fields. The stories really help connecting and driving home the issues while investing in the story of those scientists. The facts, laws, and changes are up to date and show the evolution women have had. I highly suggest this book to anyone that is a science nerd of is in a science based career field. Excellent and I will read it agin and make notes as well as pull quotes to use in my class

[Patricia Massarotto · Rating 5 out of 5]

100% updated my developing teaching & scientific intruge and honest curiousity into our advance university & collegic female perspective review of any women currently {?} working in the global STEaM industries, university and educational fields, respectively!

If you ever wondering why I picked up this kind of Columbia University Press (NY) book at our local southern Perth library, here are my read-through point-of-view thoughts, below:

See, each chapter certainly does have it's own corresponding captivating story as a great way to suitably grab you into the eye-catching chapter titles, like: "Fixing A Broken System", of - Representation, Signals, Mentorship, Recruitment, Environments, Visibility, "Work-Life Balance", Fixing Reporting & Science.
Then as it follows on with a good quaity: "senario explanation" linking the reader into why & how the expert has individually dealt with, coped with and had amazing strategies for, as Lisa M. P. Munoz (the author of this nice book) put in just so eliquently remarked with: "Stories and Strategies for Achieving Equity."

Published, copyrighted and released in 2023 (C) by Lisa M. P. Munoz....by her, it gets you in by these follow steps:
(1) The fact the she uses clear and descriptively focused titles per chapter then somehow flows straight into telling the stories which profiles of those Women in Science Now - whom have experienced say, STEaM bias, racism, apparent sexism in such high pressured, usually male-dominate job fields like: engineering, mathematics or physics. These are just a few of the so called: "debateable" global STEM industries that Munoz both speaks emensely about in this wonderful book of hers.

(2) There are, however more sucessful known STEaM fields or research project techincal, mathmatical, engineering (*mentioned above), and science careers; that Lisa M. P. Munoz includes in the book - like psychology, physics, cognitive neuroscience, chemistry, environmental and marine sciences, social psychology, genetics, bioethics, arts, and plenty more. I discovered that these amazing, smart & talented female scientists - "making a impactful difference" in these notable &/or curious fields.

Find out for yourself! Here are some of these amazing women, inside:
Eva Pietri (PhD), Sapna Cheryan (PhD), Krystal Tsosie (PhD bioethicist candidated=2022), Corinne Moss-Racusin (PhD), India Johnson (PhD), Aneeta Rattan (PhD), Katherine Huntington (PhD), Kristina Rapuano (PhD), Ellen Currano (PhD), Maï Yasué (PhD) & ecologist and filmmaker Sharon Shattuck.

Do your own investigation? Have a read!

I throughly enjoy Munoz's review into how fully "Women in Science Now" operates, develops, grows and functions, in such a known way both academically, educational and in reality to always having their own adventures by giving us brilliant: "Stories and Strategies for Acheiving Equity!"

A fun and totally worthwhile useful read myself.

Remember to set aside plenty of free time for yourself if reading; Lisa M. P. Munoz's (C) 2023 Copyrighted by ... novel: "Women in Science Now." book from your house or local library! As it's queit involved & can be a great inform lesson to both be updated by.

See for yourself! Recommending her book to anybody!

10/10 ratings!!!!

[Annie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally posted on my blog Nonstop Reader.

Women in Science Now is an interesting and well written exposition on the state of representation and equity in academia, especially in STEM written and presented by Lisa M. P. Munoz. Released 31st Oct by the Columbia University Press, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

There is a long acknowledged and seemingly intractable disparity of the sexes in STEM fields, men outnumber women, sometimes by huge margins. It's (happily) changing, but very slowly. When I was choosing a career educational path in the early 80s in the USA, I kept getting told over and over that it's a shame that I was good at math and physics because girls couldn't be engineers (so I became an engineer).

The author/editor does a good job of visualizing and describing the disparity and the systems which resists a more equitable workforce in the future -as well as- offering some insights for potentially successful ways to compensate for educational and workplace systems which are passively designed to favor males over females. She has curated essays and personal recollections from female academics and scientists about education, workplace dynamics, eyebrow raising interview questions, and experiences.

Probably the most valuable parts of the book are written as a guide toward possible solutions for mapping, addressing, and fixing some of the issues facing the sciences including workplace environments, mentorship, recruitment, visibility and other issues. These massive and intractable problem areas are broken down into much smaller subchapters and essays and readers will likely come away with a surprising sense of positivity and hopefulness.

There's a lot of work to be done but it's definitely not all bleak and it's getting better is the overall takeaway. The book is fully annotated throughout and the bibliography and reference lists will provide readers with lots of further reading. It's an academic treatise, but perfectly layman accessible and not written in impenetrable academic language. It would definitely make a good support text for classroom use (as well as a good and important read for teachers and professors, mentors and career advisors).

Five stars. The actual essays are collected from a wide variety of scientists and, as such, are varied in style and form, but overall they form a fairly cohesive whole. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, as well as home use.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

[Brian Clegg · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not the first book to be published on women in science - a few months ago we had Athene Donald's excellent Not Just for the Boys, which put across across the picture of gender inequality in STEM, and how to address it, very clearly and effectively. This book attempts to do a similar thing, but does so in a way that will appeal to a different kind of audience - unfortunately I'm not part of that audience.

What Lisa Munoz does is give us a series of portraits (including literal sketches) of female scientists, grouped in nine sections all titled Fixing X, where X ranges from representation, signals and recruitment to environments and visibility. We get a strong feeling for the experiences of individual scientists, the struggles they have had, and the opposition they have faced. As often is the case, the book is far stronger on experiences than it is on solutions.

The whole thing is pulled together in four pages of 'key takeaways' at the back - the suggestions for ways of realistically fixing things, apart from the positive direction we've already seen seem very limited. There are, as mentioned in the subtitle, strategies introduced along the way, but this is very centred on the individual, rather than giving a big picture fix, where the problem itself is more in the hands of the academic establishment than individual scientists.

The book made me think of the way that the marketing of charities has changed over the years. It used to primarily take an intellectual view, giving us the overview picture and statistics. Now it has shifted to the emotive view, giving us photographs and details of individual sufferers and what they have gone through. I've always found this approach uncomfortably manipulative - and to an extent I felt this about the style of Women in Science Now too. I preferred Donald's straightforward viewpoint.

There is, of course, a reason that charity marketing has changed. Personalising stories does work in terms of getting people on side. But in a charity appeal, you will be told the story of one or two individuals. Here there are far too many to engage with. Even if I liked this approach, I would be overwhelmed by the number of different characters that are introduced.

It's an important cause, and there are some very effective stories here. But I'm not sure the format of the book does the topic justice.

[eesha · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

holy shit i have a new appreciation for nonfiction writers the last twenty/thirty pages were simply reference notes and bibliographies like kudos to the author and everyone involved in this book, you did that!!!!

"women in science now" is a testament to the struggles that women face each and every day in the science and technology world, it not only examines these issues but also provides methods of understanding and trying to amend these issues that plague the academia world!

this book was incredibly enlightening and interesting to read as someone who plans to go into scientific research. this was meticulously researched and written and has boosted my standards in what i look for in my nonfiction novels. The drawings, anecdotes, and personal stories from multiple women alongside the facts made for an incredibly engaging book! i don't have any criticism, i don't think i could if i tried like the amount of effort and care that went into crafting this book was just so so admirable. new favorite nonfiction just dropped!

[Wenyue · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a nice storytelling book about the situations of women in science now--what are the inequities, barriers, and difficulties that scientific women are facing currently? Lisa also suggested some solutions to achieve equality: 1) increase the representation of women scientists and make them more visible, 2) replace the one-to-one mentorship model with a more robust and equitable system, 3) promote the workplace to be more flexible and safe for babycare scientists, 4) reform more transparent and accountable reporting policy about sexual harassment, 5) reframe the gender bias via films and videos interventions, 6) it's more about 'fix-the-system' than 'fix-the women', and it comes not just from women, but form all people working toward a more equitable system.

[Nour · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was gifted to me by one of my professors, and it was an excellent read. I had never seen these issues so clearly laid out and backed up with study after study. The personal anecdotes were extremely powerful and helped the book, which is heavy on research and references (a good thing!), be more digestible and human. I also appreciated how many resources and solutions were provided.

I don't think I have ever annotated a book as thoroughly as I did this one. This has given me a lot of ideas as a student in a science major and hopefully as a career scientist later in life. I will be sharing this with many of my friends in my major, and highly encourage any woman—or person!—in a science field to read it.

[Shelley O'Brien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lisa Munoz introduces readers to issues facing women in STEM, scientists studying these issues to understand the causes, and strategies to drive change. I enjoyed "meeting" the women leading this research. Telling young girls that they are capable of STEM careers and showing them role models that look like them is so incredibly important! Organizations must create inclusive spaces, offer flexible hours, and support caregivers to attract and retain more women in STEM.

[Nora Emerson · Rating 4 out of 5]

this is what lessons in chemistry SHOULD have been about
it does read like one very long scientific paper though