It’s funny
isn’t it that sometimes themes go in waves? Last week one of my Spanish
students who is learning English told me about how his daughter is part of a
group of girls who are participating in STEM based projects, such as making
robots and designing apps. Later in the week I was speaking with another
student who is a Vice-Chancellor of one of the universities in Barcellona.* She
talked about how the number of women in senior roles has gradually increased
from practically zero to a few during her career as a palaeontologist. Progress
has been made but clearly much more needs to be done to achieve parity.
In between
times, I stood in for a colleague and found myself teaching three young women
who work for a cosmetics company. The first student arrived several minutes
before the others and on introducing herself and her role as a training manager
for the company said, “It may seem strange that I work for a cosmetics company
because my background is in chemistry.” However, I could see the connection and
it sounds as though the industry is doing more to develop products that work in
harmony with the natural chemistry of the body, which seems encouraging. Asking
her about her interests, she told me that she loved cooking and then emphasised
that part of the attraction of cooking for her is that the process is
essentially practical chemistry in action.
I could
hardly believe it! She sounded like a modern-day version of Bonnie Garmus’s
wonderful character, Elizabeth Zott, in her novel, Lessons in Chemistry! I had only just read the book a week or so
before! All the way through reading it, I kept telling my wife how brilliant
and original the book is. Apparently this is Garmus’s first novel. If she keeps
going like this then phew!
The novel is
set in 1960s America, in an environment largely unsupportive of a determined
and brilliant female chemist. However, despite inevitable challenges Zott
progresses unstoppably and unpredictably, most notably by becoming the unlikely
presenter of a cooking programme, in which, you’ve guessed it, she focuses on
the chemistry underlying the cooking process. Not only is Zott an inspiring, formidable
character but she is accompanied in her absorbing journey by a diverse cast of
supporting characters, including her laser sharp daughter, an exceptionally
intelligent dog (named Six-Thirty), a neighbour locked into an awful marriage
and her agonised producer who is initially desperate for her to conform to the stereotypes
of the time.
I think
anyone with even a smidgen of interest in science and women’s roles within it
would absolutely love this book. It might particularly inspire older teenagers
to consider the idea of a STEM career, which would be wonderful if it sometimes
succeeded in doing so. However, I also think it would reinvigorate interest in
anyone, who for whatever reason lost interest in science. Having taught maths
and science in the past, as well as English, I think nearly everyone has had
negative experiences at some stage in either or both of these subjects, with
girls especially being told that, ‘this subject’s not for you’. I went to
university to do a biology degree and couldn’t have been more inspired after
completing my A levels. Three years of generally awful teaching squeezed every
ounce of enthusiasm from me and was only restored after, thankfully, someone
asked for some help with the subject, which gradually revived my interest, so I
know how powerful the negative experiences can be. (Also I gave up chemistry as
soon as I could at school because the teacher knew my dad and picked on me.**)
As you may
have gathered, I highly commend this remarkable book! I hope you enjoy it
should you decide to read it.
*I know! She
could of course run rings around me on most topics but has the humility to take
lessons from a simpleton like me, who’s only advantage is being a native
speaker of English!
** To be
fair, I pushed back strongly so gave as good as I got – he was probably pleased
I gave up the subject too!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Lessons
in Chemistry by
Bonnie Garmus. Penguin Random House UK ISBN 978-1-8049-9092-6
