The Exceptions

This book is the perfect combination between the author and the protagonist of a story who steered through gender inequality in her own field and thus led to a great scientific breakthrough. The Exceptions follows the life of Nancy Hopkins, a highly intelligent scientist who loved biology and dreamed of discovering big things in her field. However, after working with much talent and effort; she realized that many women (including herself) in science, did not receive the same opportunities nor the same recognition that men receive in the same field

Nancy decided to investigate why this inequality occurred. Together with other female scientists, they gathered proof and she talked with directors at their universities to ask for more equal and just treatment; today, thanks to her great valor and perseverance, significant changes were achieved and they helped many women in the world of science.

This book teaches readers that dedication, effort, and talent are more important than sexism. This also reminds us that when we see unjust behavior, we can work together to alter it in a respectful manner.

Throughout the book, an important message is delivered, and  lets you know that you must never let obstacles impede yourself from following your dreams. With perseverance and valor, it's possible to make a positive difference for yourself and others.

I invite you to read it and write your thoughts on it!

Book Details:

• Author: Kate Zernike

• Original Title: The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science

• Language: English only

• Subject: The true story of molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins and women in STEM

• Where to buy: https://a.co/d/0eVAYB9H

• From the shelves in bookstores: A New York Times Notable Book

As late as 1999, women who succeeded in science were called “exceptional” as if it were unusual for them to be so bright. They were exceptional, not because they could succeed at science but because of all they accomplished despite the hurdles.

“Gripping…one puts down the book inspired by the women’s grit, tenacity, and brilliance.” —Science

“Riveting.” —Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene

In 1963, a female student was attending a lecture given by Nobel Prize winner James Watson, then tenured at Harvard. At nineteen, she was struggling to define her future. She had given herself just ten years to fulfill her professional ambitions before starting the family she was expected to have. For women at that time, a future on the usual path of academic science was unimaginable—but during that lecture, young Nancy Hopkins fell in love with the promise of genetics. Confidently believing science to be a pure meritocracy, she embarked on a career.

In 1999, Hopkins, now a noted molecular geneticist and cancer researcher at MIT, divorced and childless, found herself underpaid and denied the credit and resources given to men of lesser rank. Galvanized by the flagrant favoritism, Hopkins led a group of sixteen women on the faculty in a campaign that prompted MIT to make the historic admission that it had long discriminated against its female scientists. The sixteen women were a formidable group: their work has advanced our understanding of everything from cancer to geology, from fossil fuels to the inner workings of the human brain. And their work to highlight what they called “21st-century discrimination”—a subtle, stubborn, often unconscious bias—set off a national reckoning with the pervasive sexism in science.

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Kate Zernike who broke the story, The Exceptions chronicles groundbreaking science and a history-making fight for equal opportunity. It is the “excellent and infuriating” (The New York Times) story of how this group of determined, brilliant women used the power of the collective and the tools of science to inspire ongoing radical change. And it offers an intimate look at the passion that drives discovery, and a rare glimpse into the competitive, hierarchical world of elite science—and the women who dared to challenge it.