"I'm good at science because I'm good at listening. I have been told I am intelligent, and I have been told that I am simple-minded. I have been told that I am trying to do too much, and I have been told that I can't do what I want to do because I am a woman, and I have been told that I have only been allowed to do what I have done because I am a woman. I have been told that I can have eternal life, and I have been told that I will burn myself out into an early death. I have been admonished for being too feminine and I have been distrusted for being too masculine. I have been warned that I am far too sensitive and I have been accused of being heartlessly callous. But I was told all of these things by people who can't understand the present or see the future any better than I can. Such recurrent pronouncements have forced me to accept that because I am a female scientist, anybody knows what the hell I am, and it has given me the delicious freedom to make it up as I go along. I don't take advice from my colleagues, and I try not to give it. When I am pressed, I resort to these two sentences: You shouldn't take this job too seriously. Except for when you should."
-Lab Girl by Hope Jahren
Wednesday, June 6, 2018
Labels:
essays,
female,
hope jahren,
lab girl,
nonfiction,
womanhood
loading..
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments