The Exceptions

November 21, 2022
Journalist Zernike (Boiling Mad: Inside the Tea Party) paints an inspiring portrait of MIT molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins and 15 other female scientists who pushed the university to acknowledge in 1999 a long-standing pattern of discrimination against women on its science faculty. In 1973, when Hopkins arrived at MIT as an assistant professor, the institution flaunted its sole female full professor, physicist Millie Dresselhaus, “as the emblem for what all women could be at MIT, and in science.” Twenty-one years later, women made up less than 8% of the faculty in the School of Science. Zernike movingly details how Hopkins, after enduring years of slights and mistreatment while conducting important genetic research, began reaching out to her female colleagues, who were eager to share their own stories of discrimination. They persuaded the dean of science to back their case for a Committee on Women Faculty, which compiled a devastating report on how women in the science departments had been marginalized. Striking an expert balance between the big picture and intimate profiles of the women involved, Zernike offers an intriguing and often infuriating glimpse into the rarefied world of higher education. Readers will be fascinated. Agent: Elyse Cheney, Cheney Agency.

Starred review from December 15, 2022
A powerful story of 16 women who "upset the usual assumptions about why there were so few women in science and math" in the U.S. In 1999, New York Times journalist Zernike broke the story for the Boston Globe. As she recalls, the president of MIT admitted, "I have always believed that contemporary gender discrimination within universities is part reality and part perception...but I now understand that reality is by far the greater part of the balance." The author chronicles the events through the lives of several MIT scientists, mostly Nancy Hopkins (b. 1943), a brilliant student who fell in love with biology, obtained a doctorate, and published groundbreaking research. Recruited by MIT at the dawn of affirmative action in the 1970s, she rose to become a tenured professor. Zernike writes that early-career women scientists have relatively few complaints, but they understandably chafe as they reach the top to discover that senior scientists compete viciously for status, grants, salary, publication, lab space, and assistants. The author demonstrates how the university system has always favored men. Much of the book recounts quarrels among professors and staff and the rampant sexism within the university system. Frustrated with the way she was treated, Hopkins discussed matters with other female colleagues and discovered that they were also fuming. As scientists, they gathered evidence showing how women professors had lower salaries and were promoted more slowly, given smaller laboratory space, omitted from important committees, and overlooked by the informal, male-dominated networks essential for career advancement. Perhaps surprisingly, most university officials agreed that the evidence revealed a problem and began making corrections even before the media took notice, producing front-page stories nationwide, with most praising MIT for admitting its error so quickly. "Practically overnight," writes Zernike, "MIT became the pacesetter for promoting gender equality in higher education." Since then, matters have improved. A fascinating, heartening account of successful advocacy in the scientific and academic communities.

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Starred review from January 1, 2023
This engaging account details the professional lives of women scientists and their struggles for equality during the last decades of the twentieth century, specifically at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In 1999, Boston Sunday Globe reporter Zernike broke a story in which MIT acknowledged the university's long-standing discrimination against women faculty. Zernike, a wonderful storyteller, seamlessly weaves together contemporary events, facts and statistics, and telling anecdotes from women who were working in the sciences at that time, recreating for readers an almost unbelievable culture of never-ending microaggressions, sexual harassment, and professional disdain. Zernike spends considerable time introducing molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins, who became chair of the MIT Committee on Women Faculty. She details Hopkins' horrific experiences, from being ignored to fielding threats of plagiarism lawsuits and enduring attempts to discredit her work. Zernike also covers what happened when the 1999 story broke, describing the overwhelming response from the press, the White House, and women scientists worldwide. The book ends with brief bios of the 16 women who were on the MIT faculty during the late 1990s, along with exhortations to encourage young women to consider careers in science. Zernike's profile of Nancy Hopkins provides brilliant inspiration.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.