Women’s History Month is a significant 31 days where we all celebrate women’s contributions to culture, history, society, and our world. It’s hard to fill the decades of accomplishments and contributions from women into one article — let alone one month — but women in STEM have inspired me to be the researcher and student I am today, and I need to be the one to say thanks.
During the summer of 2020, I had to read a book called Survival of the Sickest for my AP Biology summer reading assignment. I read about how pandemics were products of the solar cycle, and as I took in the information, something had immediately clicked. I did a deep-dive on my computer, compiling the dates of the past few solar cycles and influenza pandemics. I was astonished to realize that the dates were virtually identical. Little did I know, that was the day I became a researcher. I immediately emailed my discovery to my AP Biology teacher, Dr. Thompson, and she responded with an application to my high school’s elite science research program. She saw my inquisitiveness and my excitement and took a chance on me.
Dr. Thompson has been more than a teacher — she’s been a mentor and a role model for me for the past couple of years. She’s inspired me to research things totally out of my comfort zone. She’s inspired me to take risks that I wouldn’t have made otherwise. She stood by my side when I wrote my first literature review (on sunspots and pandemics), presented it at competitions, put on my first lab coat, organized my first wet lab experiment, and received significant recognition for my work. Fast forward to now, and as a freshman in college at an elite research institution, I’m now a published researcher in a neuroscience journal and currently conducting epilepsy research as an undergraduate research assistant at Vanderbilt.
In a 2021 study conducted by Moghe et al., researchers analyzed the positive impact of mentoring on students’ success in STEM careers. The study found that students who had female mentors were more likely than the students with male mentors to disclose that their research experiences prepared them for a STEM occupation.
Two years ago, at my high school, four other students and I started a Girls in Science Program, where we would teach girls in younger grades about STEM subjects once a week through demonstrations and interesting presentations. I remember one of our first experiments was DNA extraction from strawberries. The girls geared up for the lab with their gloves pulled back towards their elbows and placed their strawberries in a plastic bag. When we told them they were breaking cells to release DNA, they looked at each other with wide eyes. They meticulously added detergent, salt, and water to the bags until a white cloudy substance developed, revealing their reward: DNA! They yelled our names to show us their work and high-fived as if they’d just discovered the impossible, just like I had felt when I had the pandemic light bulb flick on over my head. We tied each lesson back to a woman in STEM.
For this demonstration, we talked about Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered the double-helix structure of DNA. But there are so many other women in STEM that deserve recognition and praise. In 1741, Charlotta Frölich was the first woman to be published by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, defying all the odds that were rooting against women in STEM. Antoine Lavoisier’s work in chemistry is ultimately a product of his wife Marie-Anne’s aid in his laboratory. Similarly, the accomplishments of astronomer Edwin Hubble were only possible through Henrietta Leavitt’s groundbreaking research, yet his name is familiar and hers is as good as forgotten. From Gerty Cori, the first woman to win a Nobel prize in science, to Jane Goodall, known for her work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, I am proud to be a product of the influential women in STEM who have walked before me.
Women only make up about 28% of occupations in STEM. The gender gaps are significant. As a member of this field, I see the long-term impact that early mentorship has on young women pursuing their academic interests.
So, thank you. Thank you to the many women in STEM who have walked this path before me. Thank you to the women who have contributed so much, but never received credit because of their sex. Thank you to the women who have paved the way for other women to find their passions. You’ve truly helped me find mine.