Ann James asked Bonnie Garmus:

Loving 'Lessons', thank you so much for writing. I know many ladies of the novels' era and they speak of similar attitudes to women in the workplace you describe but did you find the science industry worse than other disciplines? I'm enjoying the interplay between power vs ability & how men seem to interpret this sexually. Oh nature! Your little joke!

Bonnie Garmus From my research, I can tell you attitudes about women at work pervaded nearly every industry--even the steno pool. For centuries women have actively resisted the stereotypes of their so-called lesser capabilities, but I set the book in the science lab because it seems to me that science, of all industries, should know better. Women aren't scientifically less intelligent than men, or less capable. We never have been. And while some of the men in the book don't take women seriously (or see them only as sexual beings), plenty are just the opposite: Dr. Mason, Calvin Evans, Roth, the reporter, Walter Pine, Wakely. The book isn't anti-men, but anti-sexism. That's why I put in so many male allies. First because even male allies need some help with their unconscious biases (for instance Calvin assuming that maybe women weren't in science because they just weren't interested!) and second because greater alliances between all genders will take us (us = the entire human race) much further, faster. That's my hope. We just have to keep going.

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