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A Lab of One's Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science
A riveting memoir-manifesto from the first female director of the National Science Foundation about the entrenched sexism in science, the elaborate detours women have taken to bypass the problem, and how to fix the system.
If you think sexism thrives only on Wall Street or in Hollywood, you haven’t visited a lab, a science department, a research foundation, or a biotech firm.
Rita Colwell escaped the narrow expectations of her Italian immigrant family to become a groundbreaking microbiologist and ecologist who tracked down how cholera survives around the world, a discovery that would save countless lives. But when she first applied for a graduate fellowship in biology, she was told, “We don’t give fellowships to women.” Colwell could have given up then and there, but she persisted, although a lack of support from some of her male superiors would force her to change her area of study six times before she earned her PhD.
A Lab of One’s Own documents all Colwell saw and heard over the next six decades as she rose to the top of her profession, from tales of sexual assault in the lab to secret systems used to block women from leading professional organizations and getting their work published. Along the way, she also meets women pushing back against the status quo, like a group at MIT who revolt when they discover their labs are a fraction of the size of their male colleagues’.
Colwell’s resistance gives her special gifts: forced to change specialties so many times, she comes to see science as interdisciplinary, which turns out to be key to making new discoveries in the silo-less 21st century. She also witnesses the advances that can be made when men and women work together as equals, such as when she led the team whose work was critical in identifying the source of the anthrax powder used in the 2001 letter attacks.
At once alarming and inspiring, A Lab of One’s Own is an indispensable history of sixty years of scientific progress and a must-read for any woman with dreams of shattering the glass ceiling in STEM.
If you think sexism thrives only on Wall Street or in Hollywood, you haven’t visited a lab, a science department, a research foundation, or a biotech firm.
Rita Colwell escaped the narrow expectations of her Italian immigrant family to become a groundbreaking microbiologist and ecologist who tracked down how cholera survives around the world, a discovery that would save countless lives. But when she first applied for a graduate fellowship in biology, she was told, “We don’t give fellowships to women.” Colwell could have given up then and there, but she persisted, although a lack of support from some of her male superiors would force her to change her area of study six times before she earned her PhD.
A Lab of One’s Own documents all Colwell saw and heard over the next six decades as she rose to the top of her profession, from tales of sexual assault in the lab to secret systems used to block women from leading professional organizations and getting their work published. Along the way, she also meets women pushing back against the status quo, like a group at MIT who revolt when they discover their labs are a fraction of the size of their male colleagues’.
Colwell’s resistance gives her special gifts: forced to change specialties so many times, she comes to see science as interdisciplinary, which turns out to be key to making new discoveries in the silo-less 21st century. She also witnesses the advances that can be made when men and women work together as equals, such as when she led the team whose work was critical in identifying the source of the anthrax powder used in the 2001 letter attacks.
At once alarming and inspiring, A Lab of One’s Own is an indispensable history of sixty years of scientific progress and a must-read for any woman with dreams of shattering the glass ceiling in STEM.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published August 4, 2020
117 people are currently reading
1888 people want to read
About the author
Rita Colwell
3 books12 followersRita Colwell is a pioneering microbiologist and the first woman to lead the National Science Foundation. She is a Distinguished University Professor at both the University of Maryland and Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health and has received awards from the emperor of Japan, the king of Sweden, the prime minister of Singapore, and the president of the United States.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 116 reviews
August 4, 2020
Insightful, informative, and important. Rita Colwell is a distinguished environmental microbiologist who was the first female director of the National Science Foundation. She’s certainly got mile-long credentials on paper, but in A Lab of One’s Own: One Woman's Personal Journey Through Sexism in Science, she marches through her own backstory and other womens’ accounts, speaking to scientific disciplines deeply entrenched in a history of sexism and atrocious displays of gender discrimination. This is familiar territory when broaching the subject of women in the workplace; however, I still found myself shocked and think I will be until I read or hear enough about what it was like for working women across time and space.
I would like to think of science as progressive. In many ways, it is, yet I also have to overcome my naiveté to recognize a conservative institution propped up by old white males convinced that science can and should only be done by white male geniuses. I wish this was only in isolated circumstances, but A Lab of One’s Own provides the examples and data that document the persistence of sexism despite Title IX and, more recently, the #MeToo movement. Heavily focused on events and people from the 1950s to modern day, Colwell and Sharon Bertsch McGrayne demonstrate the systematic discouragement and closed doors faced by women entering the upper echelons of academic science in the US. Colwell argues that the imbalance is not a question of getting more women interested in science but a matter of reforming institutions to eliminate gender bias.
Personal anecdotes from manifold sources, multiple employment statistics and polls, and Colwell’s own journey offer both heartening credit to some of the most brilliant female minds of the time and open descriptions of gross mistreatment, assault, and shortchanging of women in science. A Lab of One’s Own is a compelling insider look at Nobel Laureates, distinguished professors, and prestigious universities who erected near insurmountable barriers for women in STEM: anti-nepotism laws against wives but not nephews or sons; lower pay and unfair class loads with no path to tenure; refusal to grant lab space to women scientists; discoveries and presentations of research not taken seriously; all-male editorial boards for peer-reviewed journals; scarce mentors for female PhD students; the list goes horrifyingly on and on. While some aspects have improved via legislation and demands from outspoken women and men, perceptions and behaviors today remain unsatisfying.
Colwell speaks with a fiery passion that thrives in her descriptions of past work, as a niche biologist making crucial leaps in our understanding of cholera epidemics and as NSF director helping to mitigate the anthrax crisis. She is a leader, a scientist, an entrepreneur, a wife, a mother—ultimately, she is a woman with an agenda and the fierce determination to see it through. Her lifelong dedication toward advancing opportunities for women and minorities in her academic and administrative life is, in no simpler terms, empowering. My only gripe is that the writing can veer too didactic or pontifical, sometimes wandering unnecessarily away from her central thesis while other stories beyond Colwell's could warrant more fleshing out.
As any scientist would, she relies on numerous data reports to hammer in her point. As any woman has to, Colwell recognizes that smacking someone in the face with data is insufficient. Imparting decades worth of wisdom about creating women/minority-centric programs and pushing for legislative and institutional change, Colwell presents an urgent must-read for any person interested in women’s rights, science, or a career in STEM.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I would like to think of science as progressive. In many ways, it is, yet I also have to overcome my naiveté to recognize a conservative institution propped up by old white males convinced that science can and should only be done by white male geniuses. I wish this was only in isolated circumstances, but A Lab of One’s Own provides the examples and data that document the persistence of sexism despite Title IX and, more recently, the #MeToo movement. Heavily focused on events and people from the 1950s to modern day, Colwell and Sharon Bertsch McGrayne demonstrate the systematic discouragement and closed doors faced by women entering the upper echelons of academic science in the US. Colwell argues that the imbalance is not a question of getting more women interested in science but a matter of reforming institutions to eliminate gender bias.
Personal anecdotes from manifold sources, multiple employment statistics and polls, and Colwell’s own journey offer both heartening credit to some of the most brilliant female minds of the time and open descriptions of gross mistreatment, assault, and shortchanging of women in science. A Lab of One’s Own is a compelling insider look at Nobel Laureates, distinguished professors, and prestigious universities who erected near insurmountable barriers for women in STEM: anti-nepotism laws against wives but not nephews or sons; lower pay and unfair class loads with no path to tenure; refusal to grant lab space to women scientists; discoveries and presentations of research not taken seriously; all-male editorial boards for peer-reviewed journals; scarce mentors for female PhD students; the list goes horrifyingly on and on. While some aspects have improved via legislation and demands from outspoken women and men, perceptions and behaviors today remain unsatisfying.
Colwell speaks with a fiery passion that thrives in her descriptions of past work, as a niche biologist making crucial leaps in our understanding of cholera epidemics and as NSF director helping to mitigate the anthrax crisis. She is a leader, a scientist, an entrepreneur, a wife, a mother—ultimately, she is a woman with an agenda and the fierce determination to see it through. Her lifelong dedication toward advancing opportunities for women and minorities in her academic and administrative life is, in no simpler terms, empowering. My only gripe is that the writing can veer too didactic or pontifical, sometimes wandering unnecessarily away from her central thesis while other stories beyond Colwell's could warrant more fleshing out.
As any scientist would, she relies on numerous data reports to hammer in her point. As any woman has to, Colwell recognizes that smacking someone in the face with data is insufficient. Imparting decades worth of wisdom about creating women/minority-centric programs and pushing for legislative and institutional change, Colwell presents an urgent must-read for any person interested in women’s rights, science, or a career in STEM.
Many thanks to Netgalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
September 7, 2020
This is a must-read for any and all scientists: to show that women are not exaggerating the history of sexism in the discipline and to show how far we still have to go. As a young scientist, this book has been hugely impactful in its intellect, candor, and warmth, and has inspired me to be the changes I wish to see in science.
May 30, 2022
I am not an academic, so much of the academic-centered information here was lost on me. I am not familiar with the process of earning doctorates or what the role of a mentor (in that capacity) means, etc. I have not gone through that process, nor have I ever worked in any sort of academic field, so I likely missed quite a lot of nuance and meaning in those areas, unless it was specifically called out.
That being said, this was a really unsurprising look into the psyche of men who claim to be all about facts and data, but really let their biases lead them to their "conclusions".
This book was well-written, and interesting to me in the research that Dr. Colwell did, and as a memoir, I really enjoyed it. As a feminist work, it was pretty dry. I appreciate the info provided, and the scientific approach to quantifying bias and sexism and some misogyny thrown in for good measure. I mean, in what world is it appropriate to have tit jokes in a scientific conference presentation... EVER? Even just among the boys, that's off topic and completely unprofessional and has no place in a SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION.
I digress. I found the information interesting and enlightening, but not really surprising, because I have met men. But I also really appreciate the work that Dr. Colwell and all of the women who came before and after her put in to make science, and the world, a little bit more equitable.
And then she mentioned that she was "good friends" with Newt Gingrich. I ought to drop a star just for that. That he aided her, and helped her get funding, is commendable. Everything else he did while in office, and afterwards... not so much.
ANYWAY. I listened to this on audio, and that probably wouldn't be my recommendation for others. I didn't love the reader, though not for any particular reason I could put my finger on, and for some reason, despite this being a book released less than 2 years ago, the audio quality sounded like a book on tape, which I did not enjoy. Still, I liked this well enough, but more for the memoir aspects than anything.
That being said, this was a really unsurprising look into the psyche of men who claim to be all about facts and data, but really let their biases lead them to their "conclusions".
This book was well-written, and interesting to me in the research that Dr. Colwell did, and as a memoir, I really enjoyed it. As a feminist work, it was pretty dry. I appreciate the info provided, and the scientific approach to quantifying bias and sexism and some misogyny thrown in for good measure. I mean, in what world is it appropriate to have tit jokes in a scientific conference presentation... EVER? Even just among the boys, that's off topic and completely unprofessional and has no place in a SCIENTIFIC PRESENTATION.
I digress. I found the information interesting and enlightening, but not really surprising, because I have met men. But I also really appreciate the work that Dr. Colwell and all of the women who came before and after her put in to make science, and the world, a little bit more equitable.
And then she mentioned that she was "good friends" with Newt Gingrich. I ought to drop a star just for that. That he aided her, and helped her get funding, is commendable. Everything else he did while in office, and afterwards... not so much.
ANYWAY. I listened to this on audio, and that probably wouldn't be my recommendation for others. I didn't love the reader, though not for any particular reason I could put my finger on, and for some reason, despite this being a book released less than 2 years ago, the audio quality sounded like a book on tape, which I did not enjoy. Still, I liked this well enough, but more for the memoir aspects than anything.
January 15, 2023
Insightful, inspiring and unquestionably important, Dr Rita Colwell’s ‘A Lab of One’s Own’ is the perfect example of a profound contribution to the discourse on gender equality in STEM. Thankful for books like these to inspire change, conversation, and inevitable progress.
April 8, 2022
Equal parts interesting and infuriating.
A recamended read for anyone interested in diversity and equity in science.
A recamended read for anyone interested in diversity and equity in science.
December 30, 2020
I knew it was bad for women in science, but reading the first and secondhand stories contained in this book bordered on horrifying. Sexism blatant and subtle, abuse, misogyny, belittling - all of it. A great, humbling read.
Rita Colwell grew up in Mass., went to Purdue for her B.S. and M.S., where she also married her scientist husband. Had a good mentor for her PhD at U of Washington where she studied marine bacteria. She switched to studying the bacteria that cause cholera and made huge contributions to the field, including providing evidence that cholera microbes persist in the environment in crustaceans and copepods, and outbreaks can be predicted by weather and climate patterns.
She had many accomplishments in science administration including being elected president of the American Society for Microbiology (and influencing the election of several subsequent women to the position), president of AAAS, and holding several high level university positions. When asked if she would be a deputy for NSF, she said no - but that she would be happy to serve as its first woman president. She did eventually get that offer.
As NSF Director, she helped sort out the anthrax crisis of 2001 using the latest sequencing technologies and ensuring cooperation between many government and intelligence agencies. She worked with both parties to increase NSF's budget. Subsequently, she founded her own biotech company, and her resume goes on and on...
My personal memory of Dr. Colwell is when she gave a talk at Notre Dame on using folded sari cloth to filter drinking water in Bangladesh as a practical public health measure.
Rita Colwell grew up in Mass., went to Purdue for her B.S. and M.S., where she also married her scientist husband. Had a good mentor for her PhD at U of Washington where she studied marine bacteria. She switched to studying the bacteria that cause cholera and made huge contributions to the field, including providing evidence that cholera microbes persist in the environment in crustaceans and copepods, and outbreaks can be predicted by weather and climate patterns.
She had many accomplishments in science administration including being elected president of the American Society for Microbiology (and influencing the election of several subsequent women to the position), president of AAAS, and holding several high level university positions. When asked if she would be a deputy for NSF, she said no - but that she would be happy to serve as its first woman president. She did eventually get that offer.
As NSF Director, she helped sort out the anthrax crisis of 2001 using the latest sequencing technologies and ensuring cooperation between many government and intelligence agencies. She worked with both parties to increase NSF's budget. Subsequently, she founded her own biotech company, and her resume goes on and on...
My personal memory of Dr. Colwell is when she gave a talk at Notre Dame on using folded sari cloth to filter drinking water in Bangladesh as a practical public health measure.
September 21, 2022
“The best of 100 percent of the population will always
be better than the best of 50 percent of the population.”
An excellent book that details sexism faced by women in science, hard to read but very important
be better than the best of 50 percent of the population.”
An excellent book that details sexism faced by women in science, hard to read but very important
December 10, 2020
"'I'm Dr. Colwell,' I said. Judging by the look on his face, clearly he was surprised... he told me later, the idea that a a woman professor was going to direct his graduate studies had never crossed his mind."
This book hit me like a ton of bricks in the best way possible but I was not expecting (or ready) for it. I picked up this book because 1. I had read a few of Dr. Colwell's papers during my graduate research and was familiar with her name and 2. Hello, there are marine microorganisms on the cover so yes, I will read it. I got so much more out of this than expected.
So, first and foremost THANK YOU DR. RITA COLWELL for everything, literally EVERYTHING. I can't even begin to express my gratitude or even put into words how much this woman has done for this Earth. Thanks you for all you've done for women in general, women in science, every single person in the world and for me personally. I had no idea how much our lives have overlapped and I was mind blown each time she said something new. Dr. Colwell might be my fairy godmother. She has directly impacted MY life in ways I had absolutely no idea: in the fields of science I’ve studied, in places/labs I’ve lived in and worked, in topics I’ve studied, in marine microbiology, in oil spill ecology and in the program she chaired that funded my masters’ degree. She literally set up my research program and helped allocate funds my research ( BP Oil Spill - GOMRI). She also lived and worked in Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay with marine plankton - every time she said copepod my heart smiled.
Dr. Colwell has literally crawleed, walked, and wacked the science community so that I could walk through in her foot steps. She has done so much for women in science and I am so grateful I never had to face the challenges she faced during her career. It is mind blowing how biased and stacked against women so many things are.
Dr. Colwell has done everything for discovering and understanding cholera strains, to fighting against bioterrorism... she has chaired every program in science and has paved the way for women to be accepted into the science community.
There is so much more I could and should say but I am speechless. Dr. Colwell is amazing and I am forever grateful for the work she has done and continues to do.This book was very impactful for me and an important piece of work for the foundations of the science community.
"Women were afraid that, if we helped other women too obviously, we'd become tainted and suffer more discrimination"
Note: this book has a slower build and won't be for every reader. Those interested in science, women in science, discrimination etc. are best suited to read.
*I received an arc in exchange for an honest review*.
This book hit me like a ton of bricks in the best way possible but I was not expecting (or ready) for it. I picked up this book because 1. I had read a few of Dr. Colwell's papers during my graduate research and was familiar with her name and 2. Hello, there are marine microorganisms on the cover so yes, I will read it. I got so much more out of this than expected.
So, first and foremost THANK YOU DR. RITA COLWELL for everything, literally EVERYTHING. I can't even begin to express my gratitude or even put into words how much this woman has done for this Earth. Thanks you for all you've done for women in general, women in science, every single person in the world and for me personally. I had no idea how much our lives have overlapped and I was mind blown each time she said something new. Dr. Colwell might be my fairy godmother. She has directly impacted MY life in ways I had absolutely no idea: in the fields of science I’ve studied, in places/labs I’ve lived in and worked, in topics I’ve studied, in marine microbiology, in oil spill ecology and in the program she chaired that funded my masters’ degree. She literally set up my research program and helped allocate funds my research ( BP Oil Spill - GOMRI). She also lived and worked in Maryland in the Chesapeake Bay with marine plankton - every time she said copepod my heart smiled.
Dr. Colwell has literally crawleed, walked, and wacked the science community so that I could walk through in her foot steps. She has done so much for women in science and I am so grateful I never had to face the challenges she faced during her career. It is mind blowing how biased and stacked against women so many things are.
Dr. Colwell has done everything for discovering and understanding cholera strains, to fighting against bioterrorism... she has chaired every program in science and has paved the way for women to be accepted into the science community.
There is so much more I could and should say but I am speechless. Dr. Colwell is amazing and I am forever grateful for the work she has done and continues to do.This book was very impactful for me and an important piece of work for the foundations of the science community.
"Women were afraid that, if we helped other women too obviously, we'd become tainted and suffer more discrimination"
Note: this book has a slower build and won't be for every reader. Those interested in science, women in science, discrimination etc. are best suited to read.
*I received an arc in exchange for an honest review*.
October 13, 2020
The following is a book review written by me (disclaimer: I'm a man) and is part of my reflecting on the book and what it means to me. I am not proposing my reflections are new. In the spirit of this book, I'm sure my comments will be a 'yeah, no duh,' for many women reading it. I have a friend who rose to impressive heights in her field as a scientist and I only now begin to imagine how hard she must have fought to get there. Hell, like getting a PhD wasn't hard enough!
I am a father of a woman who is interested in science at a young age, but also am a son who watched his mother work very hard in academia as a professor. I was not unfamiliar with its harsh power politics and inequities, but I needed to sit on the ground floor and listen to better understand the history of the bias and abuse. I needed to know what can be done (or needs to be done next) and said in the words of a woman who knew. My thanks to Dr. Colwell for witting the book.
I owe my daughter this research so I could try to prepare her for, well, the fight.
Major takeaways:
-Suppressing the talent of women in any career/profession costs the entire world new ideas. These days, not having the right new idea in time for a crisis could cost us everything. We are making due with men who are not deserving and who are less than top-tier due to inequities opening doors for them. Sexist men like to argue that this argument is saying men are not deserving, but this just proves they are not listening. ANY individual who gets a free-ride is less deserving and less qualified than someone who qualifies based on objective merit. Full stop. Repeated in large numbers, you literally will have fewer revolutionary ideas in the world because of systems that supports this (and other) inequities.
I think of this self-consciously as a man. How easy has my experience been in my life to get where I am as a white man? A shit-ton, but you need to say it, get into the details (found in this book) in order to do something about it. Who have I deprived by taking up a seat in university courses, jobs, etc.? There is no objective judge to say how I personally pushed my ideas less because of my privileges, so it rests on me to try to rise up and find ways to counteract the system that robs us of new ideas and creates injustices.
The number one way to do that according to Dr. Colwell is to stop sexist thinking when you see it and go out of your way to support women. I hope others will stop me when I make sexist mistakes. Likely, my daughter will. She is very sure of herself and confident and I admire her for it.
I hope encouraging my daughter to be interested in STEM is another way.
-I have to say it again. How many thousands of break-through ideas will continue to be lost? It's staggering when I think about it. And the statistics support that sexist biases do in fact cost talent and money: like how much more money is generated when you start having female leaders in science/industry. Money is NOT everything, but it is a clear number that can be tracked. Get into the citations in this book before you disagree in comments. If you are disinclined to look it up because 'you already know and heard about a study somewhere', then you are relying on prejudice and lazy thinking, which is exactly the problem. This book NAMES studies every time. Get educated. Citations or shut up.
-Use the system against itself. Gather facts and respond to the social situations you are presented with in a smart way. Don't play into the situation or get caught, because that makes change harder and helps systems calcify. A paraphrase, but I think it is fair for what the author suggests to her women readers.
-Lastly, don't waste time with people who are problems. There are better companies, better opportunities, more deserving mentors.
I hope I will remember to check my take-aways when my daughter is old enough to read this book. It will encourage me to read it again. I bought it out of principle, though thanks to my library for giving me a chance to read it first.
I am a father of a woman who is interested in science at a young age, but also am a son who watched his mother work very hard in academia as a professor. I was not unfamiliar with its harsh power politics and inequities, but I needed to sit on the ground floor and listen to better understand the history of the bias and abuse. I needed to know what can be done (or needs to be done next) and said in the words of a woman who knew. My thanks to Dr. Colwell for witting the book.
I owe my daughter this research so I could try to prepare her for, well, the fight.
Major takeaways:
-Suppressing the talent of women in any career/profession costs the entire world new ideas. These days, not having the right new idea in time for a crisis could cost us everything. We are making due with men who are not deserving and who are less than top-tier due to inequities opening doors for them. Sexist men like to argue that this argument is saying men are not deserving, but this just proves they are not listening. ANY individual who gets a free-ride is less deserving and less qualified than someone who qualifies based on objective merit. Full stop. Repeated in large numbers, you literally will have fewer revolutionary ideas in the world because of systems that supports this (and other) inequities.
I think of this self-consciously as a man. How easy has my experience been in my life to get where I am as a white man? A shit-ton, but you need to say it, get into the details (found in this book) in order to do something about it. Who have I deprived by taking up a seat in university courses, jobs, etc.? There is no objective judge to say how I personally pushed my ideas less because of my privileges, so it rests on me to try to rise up and find ways to counteract the system that robs us of new ideas and creates injustices.
The number one way to do that according to Dr. Colwell is to stop sexist thinking when you see it and go out of your way to support women. I hope others will stop me when I make sexist mistakes. Likely, my daughter will. She is very sure of herself and confident and I admire her for it.
I hope encouraging my daughter to be interested in STEM is another way.
-I have to say it again. How many thousands of break-through ideas will continue to be lost? It's staggering when I think about it. And the statistics support that sexist biases do in fact cost talent and money: like how much more money is generated when you start having female leaders in science/industry. Money is NOT everything, but it is a clear number that can be tracked. Get into the citations in this book before you disagree in comments. If you are disinclined to look it up because 'you already know and heard about a study somewhere', then you are relying on prejudice and lazy thinking, which is exactly the problem. This book NAMES studies every time. Get educated. Citations or shut up.
-Use the system against itself. Gather facts and respond to the social situations you are presented with in a smart way. Don't play into the situation or get caught, because that makes change harder and helps systems calcify. A paraphrase, but I think it is fair for what the author suggests to her women readers.
-Lastly, don't waste time with people who are problems. There are better companies, better opportunities, more deserving mentors.
I hope I will remember to check my take-aways when my daughter is old enough to read this book. It will encourage me to read it again. I bought it out of principle, though thanks to my library for giving me a chance to read it first.
March 13, 2021
Honestly a must-read for any scientist, but especially for female scientists. Dr. Colwell had an inspiring career, and shows through experience that for women to reach complete equality in science, change needs to come from within institutions and through policy - it's not enough to try to change minds. Have a feeling I'll keep coming back to this every once in a while.
June 13, 2025
An inspiring, moving, and heartfelt memoir. I want to be Rita Colwell when I grow up!!
January 25, 2021
A really important read about finding success as a woman scientist. I think it’s so important to read about how other women succeeded in science and take away as many lessons as possible. It also made me feel way less alone with what I have experienced by reading about what women before me went through.
I did struggle to get through it a bit because there were some parts I found more interesting than others which felt more tedious. I still think it’s worth 4 stars though for the importance of the message.
I did struggle to get through it a bit because there were some parts I found more interesting than others which felt more tedious. I still think it’s worth 4 stars though for the importance of the message.
October 29, 2021
Es maravilloso!! La ciencia, cómo hacer ciencia, cómo hacer política para y desde la ciencia, cómo hacer congresos, cómo hacer comités...
Toda una vida de labor científica desde todos los ámbitos en los que se puede abordar, y cómo hacerlo de manera que genere igualdad de oportunidades (y recompensas) para las mujeres.
Recomendado mil
Toda una vida de labor científica desde todos los ámbitos en los que se puede abordar, y cómo hacerlo de manera que genere igualdad de oportunidades (y recompensas) para las mujeres.
Recomendado mil
June 29, 2020
This is a memoir by one of the first woman scientists to gain tenure and advance in her field during and after the passage of Title IX. The writing style was more brusque than I tend to enjoy, but this might be because it contains a lot of names unfamiliar to me as someone outside that circle. I would recommend to people interested in the history of science.
August 4, 2020
Thank you to Simon & Schuster for the gifted copy of this book!
In this memoir-manifesto, Rita Colwell covers the span of her experience as a scientist in the United States, tracing back to her childhood in the 1940s. She is a microbiologist with a powerful patchwork of other expertise and education that empowered her to be a creative, interdisciplinary researcher. She was the first female director of the National Science Foundation after decades of dedicated scholarship and coordinated affronts to the daily sexism in her industry.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as much as the blatant sexism made me furious. Even today, the fight is far from over, but thanks to Dr. Colwell and others, strides have been made. I was particularly enthralled by Dr. Colwell’s diplomacy, shrewdness, and organizing skill when talking women to make changes within the scientific world, particularly at academic institutions and in journals.
One part I did not expect but was glad to read about was Dr. Colwell’s direct impact on the study of cholera as well as sequencing the anthrax from the mail scare after 9/11. The latter in particular was a great addition, as it was an example of effective and unbiased collaboration — a refreshing example!
My only criticism has to do with her final chapter which consists of advice and ideas for additional growth (so very scientific of her — opportunities for future study!). Some of her thoughts around education rely on privilege and flexibility, e.g. picking an elementary school based on how they approach teaching science, starting computer science at or before high school, etc. I was hoping for some system-level suggestions around making exposure to lab-type science a more universal secondary school experience.
In this memoir-manifesto, Rita Colwell covers the span of her experience as a scientist in the United States, tracing back to her childhood in the 1940s. She is a microbiologist with a powerful patchwork of other expertise and education that empowered her to be a creative, interdisciplinary researcher. She was the first female director of the National Science Foundation after decades of dedicated scholarship and coordinated affronts to the daily sexism in her industry.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book, as much as the blatant sexism made me furious. Even today, the fight is far from over, but thanks to Dr. Colwell and others, strides have been made. I was particularly enthralled by Dr. Colwell’s diplomacy, shrewdness, and organizing skill when talking women to make changes within the scientific world, particularly at academic institutions and in journals.
One part I did not expect but was glad to read about was Dr. Colwell’s direct impact on the study of cholera as well as sequencing the anthrax from the mail scare after 9/11. The latter in particular was a great addition, as it was an example of effective and unbiased collaboration — a refreshing example!
My only criticism has to do with her final chapter which consists of advice and ideas for additional growth (so very scientific of her — opportunities for future study!). Some of her thoughts around education rely on privilege and flexibility, e.g. picking an elementary school based on how they approach teaching science, starting computer science at or before high school, etc. I was hoping for some system-level suggestions around making exposure to lab-type science a more universal secondary school experience.
February 9, 2021
This book starts strong with horrid descriptions of how women have historically been treated in science. This part was both infuriating and heartbreaking.
Most of the rest of the book unfortunately was pretty much a list of the authors work history and accomplishments akin to a CV. Lots of name dropping and lists of institutions and positions they have held over the years. This part, while probably impressive to some, was overall very boring and inconsequential to a reader who is not intimately acquaintance with the structure of science administration in the US.
Last chapter was a list of ways to be an ally to women scientists and how to best advance one’s own career in this unnecessarily highly competitive world built by men for men.
All in all, very little time was spent doing any science in any lab. The memoir part is so tattered that very little can be learned about the author as a person. Unfortunately this was not a very inspiring read.
Most of the rest of the book unfortunately was pretty much a list of the authors work history and accomplishments akin to a CV. Lots of name dropping and lists of institutions and positions they have held over the years. This part, while probably impressive to some, was overall very boring and inconsequential to a reader who is not intimately acquaintance with the structure of science administration in the US.
Last chapter was a list of ways to be an ally to women scientists and how to best advance one’s own career in this unnecessarily highly competitive world built by men for men.
All in all, very little time was spent doing any science in any lab. The memoir part is so tattered that very little can be learned about the author as a person. Unfortunately this was not a very inspiring read.
February 1, 2021
Rita Colwell is one of the top scientists in America, but her journey to get there was difficult. She was in graduate school in the 1950's and had a very hard time finding a male professor to mentor her in a PhD program. She ended up changing her course of study six times because of this. But, she succeeded mostly by never giving up, but also by finding men who would support her along the way - including her husband. Her accomplishments are amazing especially considering how much resistance she had along the way. When I read the blatant sexism and misogyny toward women in college/higher education it's mind blowing, but sadly it's not been completely eradicated either - often it's just more subtle. And while Colwell's story and the stories of the other women scientists she highlights in this book are AMAZING, she also highlights how much hasn't changed and how hard it still is for women in any male-dominated/historic field. The only reason I didn't rate this book higher is that there is a LOT of technical science language that can be hard to follow or fully understand and then toward the end Colwell is working on government committees/appointments and then starts her own business and there was a lot of technical detail about each entity that I wasn't as into reading about. But, overall her story is amazing at how much she accomplished and how much things have changed for women in science in her lifetime.
Some quotes I liked:
"Several months later, [Oregon Representative Edith] Green, without informing her colleagues in the House of Representatives about the implications of what she was doing, slipped Simchak's short passage banning sex discrimination in any educational program receiving federal aid into what would become the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. Once the passage was in the bill, Green ordered the leaders of the women's groups not to lobby for Title IX of the act. She didn't want to alert the men in Congress to its importance. And so, still happily oblivious to what Title IX meant, Congress made it illegal to discriminate against women in education and gave individual women the power to sue universities in order to hold on to their jobs, protest tenure or employment decisions, and demand equal pay." (p. 42)
"When people ask me how I had time to publish more than eight hundred scientific papers over the course of my career, I tell them I had no choice: as a woman, I had to prove my findings twenty times over just to get them taken seriously. Proving, proving, proving - you were always swimming against the current." (p. 96)
"What we women learned by bitter experience, modern research has confirmed: men who openly help highly qualified women and underrepresented minorities are rewarded, while women and nonwhite minorities who do the same are penalized." (p. 117)
Some quotes I liked:
"Several months later, [Oregon Representative Edith] Green, without informing her colleagues in the House of Representatives about the implications of what she was doing, slipped Simchak's short passage banning sex discrimination in any educational program receiving federal aid into what would become the Educational Amendments Act of 1972. Once the passage was in the bill, Green ordered the leaders of the women's groups not to lobby for Title IX of the act. She didn't want to alert the men in Congress to its importance. And so, still happily oblivious to what Title IX meant, Congress made it illegal to discriminate against women in education and gave individual women the power to sue universities in order to hold on to their jobs, protest tenure or employment decisions, and demand equal pay." (p. 42)
"When people ask me how I had time to publish more than eight hundred scientific papers over the course of my career, I tell them I had no choice: as a woman, I had to prove my findings twenty times over just to get them taken seriously. Proving, proving, proving - you were always swimming against the current." (p. 96)
"What we women learned by bitter experience, modern research has confirmed: men who openly help highly qualified women and underrepresented minorities are rewarded, while women and nonwhite minorities who do the same are penalized." (p. 117)
September 22, 2020
5 star topic and thinking, 3 star writing -- 4 star book! It's at times a slog, but this book is both a chronicle of one amazing woman's life in science and of broader discrimination against and mistreatment of women in the sciences. It's equal parts captivating and infuriating, especially when I think of all the amazing women I know doing (largely thankless, yet tremendously important) work in STEM.
It's a testament to the insidious power of the forces Colwell describes, too, that I came away from this book thinking Colwell is almost certainly underselling how insanely accomplished her career is. Among other things, she was the first woman to lead the NSF, served as president of the American Society for Microbiology and AAAS, and conducted pioneering research on cholera and tracing anthrax attacks. She mentions all of these things, some in depth, but even while she described her work at length, at times the reader can feel that these things were almost destined, rather than the product of insanely hard work and a lot of brilliance. Her modesty suits her, but I can't help but think a man would have spent even more time taking credit for things and spent far less effort making sure credit was shared with all who had been involved. (One small thing she doesn't mention -- the work on tracing anthrax was later strongly disputed and remains in question to this day. But it's her memoir, so that's not a particularly realistic expectation).
I will confess that I almost never read memoir, so I might be grading a bit harshly. But mechanically, I found at times this book tough to progress through. I appreciated the efforts to identify and elevate the contributions of women in science, but at times the list of names felt thrown in and exhausting. As a result, I don't think I absorbed many of them, which is a shame. Going deeper on a smaller set might have been more effective. Similarly, some of the sections, particularly in her earlier and mid-career felt unfocused and could have benefitted from a sharper edit that forced a clearer emphasis on an argument, story, or through line, rather than straying into whatever the author happened to find interesting.
But don't let that stop you. At a bare minimum, everyone should read the last chapter about how they can be better allies and advocates (though obviously there are books and books about that topic in more depth or from different angles that are also worthwhile). Doing so isn't just the morally right thing to do, though it very much is for people who aspire to build a more just society; but as Colwell notes, it actually benefits us all. We're wasting so much human potential, leaving people to suffer needlessly, and discouraging people willing to work very hard to make life better for the rest of us.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review.
It's a testament to the insidious power of the forces Colwell describes, too, that I came away from this book thinking Colwell is almost certainly underselling how insanely accomplished her career is. Among other things, she was the first woman to lead the NSF, served as president of the American Society for Microbiology and AAAS, and conducted pioneering research on cholera and tracing anthrax attacks. She mentions all of these things, some in depth, but even while she described her work at length, at times the reader can feel that these things were almost destined, rather than the product of insanely hard work and a lot of brilliance. Her modesty suits her, but I can't help but think a man would have spent even more time taking credit for things and spent far less effort making sure credit was shared with all who had been involved. (One small thing she doesn't mention -- the work on tracing anthrax was later strongly disputed and remains in question to this day. But it's her memoir, so that's not a particularly realistic expectation).
I will confess that I almost never read memoir, so I might be grading a bit harshly. But mechanically, I found at times this book tough to progress through. I appreciated the efforts to identify and elevate the contributions of women in science, but at times the list of names felt thrown in and exhausting. As a result, I don't think I absorbed many of them, which is a shame. Going deeper on a smaller set might have been more effective. Similarly, some of the sections, particularly in her earlier and mid-career felt unfocused and could have benefitted from a sharper edit that forced a clearer emphasis on an argument, story, or through line, rather than straying into whatever the author happened to find interesting.
But don't let that stop you. At a bare minimum, everyone should read the last chapter about how they can be better allies and advocates (though obviously there are books and books about that topic in more depth or from different angles that are also worthwhile). Doing so isn't just the morally right thing to do, though it very much is for people who aspire to build a more just society; but as Colwell notes, it actually benefits us all. We're wasting so much human potential, leaving people to suffer needlessly, and discouraging people willing to work very hard to make life better for the rest of us.
Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC, which I received in exchange for an honest review.
February 9, 2025
I assigned this book for my intro philosophy course called A Lab of Her Own: Science, Knowledge, Feminist Philosophy. It provides an excellent tour several decades of history and the kinds of sexism that women have experienced and continue to experience in the sciences. The author was the first female head of the National Science Foundation, and she has done important work in microbiology, particularly regarding cholera. To me, the most interesting chapters were the one detailing her work on cholera and the one detailing her role (along with the NSF and the CIA and the FBI...) solving the mystery of the anthrax attacks in 2001. Many of my students also really enjoyed the book though some had critiques that it wasn't more intersectional in nature. I'm of the mind that not all books can be all things to all people. It's important that this book be one, out of many, in the area of social justice and science.
June 20, 2020
Serving as both an autobiography and primer on women in science, this book provides great insight into the experiences of women in male-dominated STEM fields. The blending of narrative with research to back up the anecdotes make this book as informative as it is enjoyable. Colwell doesn’t shy away from getting deep into the science, and those details enrich the storytelling greatly.
While the book highlights the efforts of the women who came before us, and how much better it is for women in STEM fields now (thanks ever so much to their efforts), much of it feels just the same. I was caught up in the 1990’s groundswell of support for women in STEM, yet I had many of the same experiences as the women who entered the field in the 1950s. This phenomenon is, sadly, not unique nor eradicated.
That said, the final part of the book gets into real solutions for the issue. Discussing what can be done on personal and institutional levels to continue breaking down sexism (and all the other “isms” that plague STEM) this section provides a solid framework for moving forward. These solutions are also presented as work that needs to be done by everyone, making it clear that the issue is not that women and minorities aren't doing enough, but that the current structures are doing too little.
This book is a must read for anyone in STEM, though perhaps especially for those who have most benefited from the existing gate keeping.
While the book highlights the efforts of the women who came before us, and how much better it is for women in STEM fields now (thanks ever so much to their efforts), much of it feels just the same. I was caught up in the 1990’s groundswell of support for women in STEM, yet I had many of the same experiences as the women who entered the field in the 1950s. This phenomenon is, sadly, not unique nor eradicated.
That said, the final part of the book gets into real solutions for the issue. Discussing what can be done on personal and institutional levels to continue breaking down sexism (and all the other “isms” that plague STEM) this section provides a solid framework for moving forward. These solutions are also presented as work that needs to be done by everyone, making it clear that the issue is not that women and minorities aren't doing enough, but that the current structures are doing too little.
This book is a must read for anyone in STEM, though perhaps especially for those who have most benefited from the existing gate keeping.
November 27, 2021
3.5 stars. As a woman in science, who has experienced sexism throughout my education and career, I was eager to read this book. This is an incredibly important topic and issue in science. I loved hearing about Dr. Colwell’s journey in science and the information given throughout. I particularly enjoyed the anthrax chapter and the use of sequencing to determine origin. This book was powerful and inspiring.
However, I struggled with the writing/layout of this book—it often randomly flip flopped between memoir style and then data/stories of others. I also felt that the “things to do to change this” last section were definitely routed in privilege—suggesting that all high schools teach computer literacy is a far stretch, for example—while ideal, some high schools (like mine) didn’t even have advanced placement classes. I also wish there were citations in the text for easy follow up.
However, I struggled with the writing/layout of this book—it often randomly flip flopped between memoir style and then data/stories of others. I also felt that the “things to do to change this” last section were definitely routed in privilege—suggesting that all high schools teach computer literacy is a far stretch, for example—while ideal, some high schools (like mine) didn’t even have advanced placement classes. I also wish there were citations in the text for easy follow up.
August 18, 2025
Rita Colwell is my HERO. I can’t believe she’s from Beverly and I’d never heard of her! This book is a must read for any woman in STEM, or really anyone in STEM in general (the book definitely does get technical at times). I wish I could hear Rita’s thoughts on what’s currently happening in our government, I can’t imagine watching someone trying to your decades of work. It was so interesting to listen to her talk about how bipartisan science and diversity initiatives used to be.
Also, I hate you Watson and Crick.
Also, I hate you Watson and Crick.
November 14, 2021
Rita Colwell, an inspirational woman, has written an inspirational book. As a student in the humanities rather than STEM, I had no idea that sexism in science was so still so rampant. Learning about her journey not only gave me a new perspective about what it's like to be a woman scientist, but about what it's like to be a woman in any field in ways that I have blind too. She points out how things that feel normal, because it's how things have always been, are not how they should be!
November 6, 2020
Narrated by Jackie Sanders and borrowed from the National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled's BARD app.
December 17, 2024
Infuriating and inspirational.
September 21, 2024
This book was so good—a really great personal narrative of navigating institutional barriers, as well as highlighting the premise that there are plenty of women in STEM, but they are often undervalued and stick around less due to sexism.
dnf
August 4, 2020disclaimer: I received an advanced copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for review consideration. All of the opinions presented below are my own. Quotes have been taken from the advanced copy and are subject to change upon publication.
i really struggled with the writing in this. i don't think it was particularly bad, but really felt like it was rushing through things. while the timeline was somewhat linear, following Colwell's career, it also branched off haphazardly to describe other scientists and events. this might mesh better with someone more strongly interested in the history of the field and who is more familiar with the names mentioned. it also honestly felt more like a summary of Colwell's resume than anything else, like she was trying to go down a list rather than provide an actual narrative. while easy enough to read, i just didn't really find it engrossing at all.
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i really struggled with the writing in this. i don't think it was particularly bad, but really felt like it was rushing through things. while the timeline was somewhat linear, following Colwell's career, it also branched off haphazardly to describe other scientists and events. this might mesh better with someone more strongly interested in the history of the field and who is more familiar with the names mentioned. it also honestly felt more like a summary of Colwell's resume than anything else, like she was trying to go down a list rather than provide an actual narrative. while easy enough to read, i just didn't really find it engrossing at all.
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March 26, 2021
The life and work of Dr. Rita Colwell, path-breaking microbiologist and science administrator, along with stories of other women in science. The ways these women have been treated made me so angry that I had to put the book aside for a while and start again later. (Yes, times have changed, due to hard work by many; but they haven't changed enough yet.) Colwell's significant work on cholera and anthrax are presented in readable and exciting fashion, and she gives credit to colleagues and supporters, male and female, not least her supportive husband. (One puzzle: The discussion of Title IX cites Rep. Edith Green but doesn't mention Rep. Patsy Mink, whose name the law now bears.) A valuable book that I'm glad to have.
July 12, 2020
As a women in marine science I enjoyed this book. It's always encouraging to read stories about successful female scientists who have done work to pave the way for the future females in science. The novel was well-written and I enjoyed reading about the various positions Rita held over the course of her career. The path she took to get to each place was enjoyable and encouraging and I think this is a great read for any female either in science or who is considering a career in the sciences.
August 9, 2024
Feeling inspired. This book had a little bit of everything which was cool since I feared it would be another “it sucks to be discriminated against in this way and that way” kind of women in science book, but alas it was not. I surprisingly enjoyed the politics chapters a lot. I also learned I have Rita Colwell to thank for many of the resources I benefited from (Most notably, PhD salary “increases” that unfortunately stagnated after she left as director of NSF). Overall, a good read.
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