My lost thesis chapter-thoughts about women, diversity, science and academia
By Maayan Yehudai
Third year into my PhD, I was sitting on the subway, reading “Lab Girl” by Hope Jahren[1], when something popped in my chest.
A sink opened in my stomach and my sight became a blur as tears started dripping on the pages. Luckily, you do sometimes see people cry on the subway, so I cried and cried on the train, relieved this one thing is not forbidden by the unwritten NYC subway book of rules. I cried as I got off the train and kept crying as I walked home. I kept crying for hours, mourning my dream of having to not sacrifice anything in the perfect enlightened world. I was crying because this book felt like a slap in the face to the helpless young girl I said goodbye to at that moment, who still believed she could “do whatever she wants” or “be whoever she wants to be” when she grows up.
[1] Jahren is a tenured professor whose book has presented one raw version of a woman’s trajectory in science.
Now, I want to share the story of starting the Gender and Diversity discussion Group at my institution, how it began and how it evolved. I want to share this story for the sake of anyone who could learn from my experience of doing science while building a better community. Many points in my grad school years were simply hell and…
