IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2015 - 22

She goes on to note that what fuels
the divide even today is the continued
stigma that women's personal characteristics are believed to impact their
professional lives, while men are not
held to the same standard. At a recent
presentation to Tufts University students, Des Jardins cited the example
Des Jardins with her family in South Africa in
of personal appearance. "One example April 2014.
we discussed was the idea that proering the historical enterprise. "What that
fessional women have to look very put
means is that there used to not be profestogether, but there is also this fine line that
sional versus amateur history," describes
if they look too together, then they are seen
Des Jardins. "But a group of people get
as vain and not taken seriously. However, if
together and decide to legitimize a field
they come in to work with no care for their
by identifying what is professional versus
personal appearance, then they're stigmawhat is amateur, and the professional group
tized as messy or disorganized." The disgains prestige through the infusion of mascussion continued with the juxtaposition
culine meaning." She goes on to explain
to men's appearance, where there exists
that these are interpretations of masculina type of romanticism around the male
ity and femininity and not necessarily real
disheveled scientist, as well as the more
or true, but that our culture believes them
recent "look" of the Silicon Valley CEO
to be factual. In science, the masculine prowho goes to board meetings in t-shirts or
fessional construct is work that gets perhooded sweatshirts.
formed in nonemotionally charged places
"My twin sister is the founder of
like labs, to which women historically did
BlogHer, and she tells me all the time that
not have access, as opposed to the emotionshe would never think to go into a meeting
ally charged location of the home.
looking like the male CEOs do," shares Des
Des Jardins had been working on an
Jardins. "But with men, there's the sense
extension of her dissertation topic into the
that they're so into what they do and so
present day, not about science specifically,
brilliantly eccentric that it's perfectly OK."
when she instead became inspired to write
And while judgments around appearance
The Madame Curie Complex. "I was leavor any personality traits would be applicaing my teaching post at Harvard University
ble to any field, what makes this so debiliwhen the Larry Summers gender remarks
tating in science, technology, engineering,
debacle happened, and I just thought the
and mathematics (STEM) fields is the perwomen in science problem was a more resception that science is pure and methodionant cultural issue," she recalls. "The topic
cal, unaffected by personal feelings.
was on my mind because my husband was
"People think that social rules don't at
a physicist and I had always been interested
all impinge on the science, but of course
in what was happening in his lab and comthey do," says Des Jardins. "This has a lot
paring women in the hard sciences versus
to do with the politics of professionalism
social sciences or humanities."
from all the way back at the turn of the
When the book came out in 2010, Des
century. We've decided that the profesJardins was especially excited for people
sional scientist looks a certain way, and it's
interested in science and feminism to
a masculine representation."
read the work. "It was my first book not
Exploring this topic was a natural extencatered to an academic audience. Women
sion of Des Jardins' graduate school disserand the Historical Enterprise is not
tation, written about female historians and
exactly joy reading," she laughs. Still, she
the moment when history becomes profesdidn't expect the sustained appeal. "It's so
sionalized in the late 19th century, regend-

IEEE womEn In EngInEErIng magazInE

JUNE 2015

gratifying to be able to talk to STEM
students at various universities," she
says. "I've also spoken to the National
Science Foundation and the American Association for the Advancement
of Science, but I just never thought
I'd be speaking to nonhistorians over
four years after the book came out."
A continued interest in the insights
from The Madame Curie Complex
shows how much gender inequalities persist in science fields, something most STEM
professionals readily understand. Still, says
Des Jardins, this is not solely a numbers
issue. "If you look at some of the most prestigious programs in the United States, the
numbers of women are looking better and
better," she points out. "I'm not saying that
this doesn't help, but if there's still the same
perception of professional science, then
women feel like they have to play to the
same rules they always did."
So what else can we do? A cultural shift
in perception is not attained overnight, but
Des Jardins says we need to start. "One of
the ways to work on this culture is to recognize the reality of an interplay between
private and professional lives in science
and to see that it is as much an interplay
for men as for women," she says. "The
perception that a good scientist doesn't let
personal life impinge on scientific work is
just not reality. The very questions you ask
in science have a lot to do with your experiences." By acknowledging this relationship between professional and personal for
both genders, the unattainable perfection
that women feel held to-in the image of
Marie Curie-can be loosened.
In addition to The Madame Curie
Complex, De Jardins is the author of Lillian Gilbreth: Redefining Domesticity
(2012) and Women and the Historical
Enterprise in America: Gender, Race, and
the Politics of Memory (2003). Her newest book, Walter Camp: Football and the
Modern Man comes out in 2015.
-Leslie Prives is a freelance writer
living in New York City.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Women in Engineering Magazine - June 2015