We still live in a world in which a significant fraction of people, including women, believe that a woman belongs and wants to belong exclusively in the home.
The only difference between men and women in science is that the women have the babies. This makes it more difficult for women in science but should not be seen as a barrier, for it is merely another challenge to be overcome.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote addresses the challenges women face in science due to traditional roles in childbirth, viewing those challenges as opportunities for resilience.
Rosalyn Sussman Yalow highlights the unique challenges that women in the scientific field encounter, primarily due to the societal expectations tied to motherhood. She emphasizes that while having children may complicate a woman's career in science, it should not be perceived as a setback but rather as a challenge that can be courageously met and overcome, reinforcing the need for persistence and resourcefulness in the face of adversity.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
During a conference about gender equality in STEM, this quote can be shared to inspire female scientists.
More from Rosalyn Sussman Yalow
All quotes →We bequeath to you, the next generation, our knowledge but also our problems. While we still live, let us join hands, hearts and minds to work together for their solution so that your world will be better than ours and the world of your children even better.
The failure of women to have reached positions of leadership has been due in large part to social and professional discrimination.
I feel it is now my duty to speak to young women, to encourage them to have careers and, particularly, careers in science.
I wasn't handed college or graduate school or anything else on a silver platter. I had to work very hard, but I did it because I wanted to. That's the real key to happiness. I think unhappy people are those who feel that circumstances are forcing them into a pattern. Happy people are not slaves to the system.
They told me that, as a woman, I'd never get into graduate school in physics, so they got me a job as a secretary at the College of Physicians and Surgeons and promised that, if I were a good girl, I would take courses there.
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As a Christian, but also as a scientist responsible for overseeing the Human Genome Project, one of my concerns has been the limits on applications of our understanding of the genome. Should there be limits? I think there should. I think the public has expressed their concern about ways this information might be misused.
Therefore, when I considered this carefully, the contempt which I had to fear because of the novelty and apparent absurdity of my view, nearly induced me to abandon utterly the work I had begun.
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