Women Scientists: 9.3 Minutes of Fame?

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Science

Volume

300

Issue

5627

Publisher

American Association for the Advancement of Science

Publication Date

1-1-2003

Abstract

While watching a nationally broadcasted multipart 8-hour PBS science series called Evolution, we were struck by how differently female scientists were profiled in the series compared with male scientists. The show used the standard approach of using "scientific personalities" as an authentic source of scientific information. A scientist is profiled, and then he or she describes their research to the viewing audience. In the Evolution series, the amount of time given per scientist varied significantly by their gender, with the average male scientist given 200 s of air time and the average female scientist given 124 s (1). It would seem that Andy Warhol's observation that "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes" would need to be modified down to 9.3 min for female scientists.

Comments

Originally published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Publisher's PDF and HTML fulltext available through remote link.

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