Heavy Hitting $TEMmers: The Women of STEM 2017-2019
Don’t forget to wonder
Be a $TEMmer
I started developing the $TEMmers calendars in 2015. The first publication, Women in $TEM 2017 Series 1.0, went on sale in 2017 and sold out within days right before the end of the year holidays.
The research alone took forever because I could not find many biographies of women of color scientists who were from underrepresented, underserved, and marginalized (UUM, as in uh, what about me?) backgrounds. I like as much diversity as possible, so I would not proceed with the publication without a fair representation of all scientists, techies, engineers, math peeps, and inventors from all over the world. Three calendars later and a fourth on its way, I’m still in awe at the amazing, yet not largely celebrated, stories of the many women in STEM. Much of this is due the overlap of their struggles and successes with ours. So, why do we shy away from STEM when they’ve been doing it for hundreds of years?
Most of us ride a scooter, take a rideshare, or carpool to school and work. So, what 14-year-old would walk 5 miles round-trip to work just to save money for school? The immigrant lady who invented the microelectrode, Ida Hyde, PhD, that’s who. She earned her PhD at age 39, which is foolishly considered old to obtain such a feat today.
It was then that I realized I held a unique position.
– Hyde, September 2019 $TEMmer
Remember when women couldn’t wear pants to work? Neither do I, but Annie Easley, Computer Scientist and Mathematician,started wearing pantsuits to NASA in the 60’s or 70’s to aid Equal Employment Opportunity for women. Can you imagine being an African-American woman who was fighting for the rights of all women in a time when African-Americans were discriminated against all over the country and world? Now that’s what I call Fashionable $cience.
When people have their biases and prejudices, I will work around you, not be so discouraged that I'd walk away.
- Easley , April 2017 $TEMmer
Had a miserable week? Feel like a failure? So did Bertha Swirles, PhD. Although she understood Schrodinger better than Heisenberg, Dr. Swirles broke lab instruments despite receiving training from Nobel Laureates in physics & math. She also was so miserable in her physics courses that she dropped out.
Experiments were not safe in my hands.
- Swirles, May 2019 $TEMmer.
Remember being 11 and dreaming of your wedding day? Well, Rukhmabai, MD became a child bride at age 11. She fought for her divorce & influenced the Age of Consent Act of 1891 in India. At age 30 she became an MD.
-Rukhmabai, November 2019 STEMmer
SpaceX is dope, right? Kalpana Chawla and Laurel Clark were doper. Elon Musk is able to pursue his astro-science endeavors because women like Dr.’s Chawla & Clark played groundbreaking roles in advancing earth & space sciences. One was the first Indian-American woman in space, the other a US Navy Captain. Neither reached the age of 42 because Space Shuttle Columbia failed to safely return to Earth in 2003.
-Chawla and Clark, March 2017 $TEMmers
Love being a first of firsts? Kono Yasui, PhD was the first Japanese woman to receive a PhD in science. She used her biology and cytology training to study genetics of poppies and plants that were affected by atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
-Yasui, February 2017 $TEMmer
When was the last time you got a promotion? Dorothy Johnson Vaughan worked over 30 years for pre-NASA without a promotion. That’s just a smidgen of what it was to be an African-American mathematician in a segregated STEM work place. She supervised Katherine Johnson when NASA was called NACA.
-Vaughan, September 2019 $TEMmer
Bosses can suck, especially when they steal your work, right? Alice Ball was a young chemist when she developed an innovative method to treat leprosy. She got sick and had to leave the lab, so her boss renamed her technique after himself. She was the first African-American and woman to earn a Master’s degree at the University of Hawaii in 1915.
-Ball, July 2018 $TEMmer
Ever have to quit a job because someone had a problem that you were a girl? Keiko Okami, MD quit her job as head of Gynecology because the Japanese Emperor didn’t want her medical treatment. She opened up her own clinic.
-Okami, August 2019 $TEMmer
You know how celebrities sue tabloids for running false stories? Well, Kadambini Ganguly, MD sued a magazine editor for publishing that she was a harlot just because she married a widower who was almost 20 year older than her. Oh, and Queen Elizabeth gave her a pony. She delegated in India’s National Congress over 30 years before the US allowed women to vote. She did all this during the oppressive British Raj.
-Ganguly , July 2019 $TEMmer
Ever play Battleship? Well, Raye Jean Montague built US Navy ships using computer programming. It was the first time this was ever done. Oh, and she did this despite not being able to attend engineering school because of racial discrimination.
There is no such thing as women’s work or men’s work.
– Montague, January 2019 $TEMmer
I thank these Women in $TEM for showing us that a diverse group of people can come together to improve humanity through their passion & diligence. Honoring those who strived & sacrificed puts into perspective the people & events that allow us to realize our STEM dreams. Learn to work together. Honor the differences among each other. May we remember them as we pursue our own endeavors in STEM.
