What if we wrote about male scientists like we write about women scientists?

3 Feb 2016

Pierre and Marie Curie

As anyone who reads Siliconrepublic.com regularly will know, diversity, equality and the promotion of women in STEM is a subject that we regularly champion.

So, we were tickled when we saw that a Twitter user called @Daurmith had caused a bit of a stir by tweeting bios of famous male scientists as if they had been written about women scientists.

The tweets had originally been written in Spanish but when Daurmith saw the interest they were inspiring he translated them into English.

By paying homage to the male scientists’ looks, personalities and marital statuses, Daurmith managed to highlight perfectly the sort of writing professional women are subject to all the time.

 

And the tweets inspired others to get involved.

Daurmith told Buzzfeed he was inspired to write the tweets when he was “a bit irked” to read a piece about British poet Sarah Howes, who had just won the TS Eliot Prize, which he felt focused more on her looks than her poetry.

“I got to thinking about that and about all the other times I’ve seen articles written about notable women in which their looks/makeup secrets/wardrobe advice were discussed, sometimes instead of – not besides – her work.”

Yup. An excellent point well made.

If you want to see some great women scientists – and women involved in tech – being celebrated for their achievements, then you should check out our Women Invent section.

Gigglebit is Siliconrepublic.com’s daily dose of the funny and fantastic in science and tech, to help start your day on a lighter note.

Image of Pierre and Marie Curie via Shutterstock

Brigid O Gorman is a former sub-editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com