The Future of Science is Female. Zara Stone
what I wanted, and I said I’d love to review the camera. He frowned. “Why not take the electric toothbrush or the hairdryer?” he said. “I think you’d be good with them.”
I nodded—I was trying to be the best intern ever, remember?—and took the electric toothbrush home. A week later I turned in a kickass review, which went in the magazine. Then they gave me a hair straightener to review. A pair of smart scales. A pink laptop. I loved learning about technology, but I hated being put in a box.
I’ve never forgotten that editor. Maybe he genuinely thought those gadgets were best for me. Maybe he didn’t realize how sexist and belittling it felt to be the girl with the pink technology. But so what? It still stung, and it influenced what work I did there and how other people looked at me. His microaggressions stuck with me.
I went on to have a great career in journalism, with a focus on the intersection of culture, technology, and science. I worked as an on-air reporter for ABC News and as a writer for the Washington Post, The Atlantic, Wired magazine, the BBC, and more. I’ve interviewed Steve Wozniak, DJ Tiësto, Cat Deeley, Spice Girl Emma Bunton, Watchmen designer Dave Gibbons, firefighters, mermaids, and more. But I got here in spite of, not because of.
These kinds of microaggressions still happen. In schools across the country, about half as many girls as boys are interested in STEM by eighth grade. That drops to 15 percent by the end of high school. That’s not cool. The world is getting techier and techier, and we need women to be part of its creation. If you’re not in the game, you don’t get a say in what it looks like.
The Takeaway from This Book
Each chapter in this book examines a different world problem, from climate change to the future of work, and introduces the female scientists who are working on solutions. You’ll learn how they got to where they are and what challenges they faced and overcame along the way.
It provides an overview of some of the coolest and most exciting science and technology projects happening today—all pioneered by badass women who challenged the status quo. They saw problems that needed solving and wouldn’t take no for an answer.
You’ll learn the fascinating, complicated stories of how this diverse group of women got started—from the perspective of those still working it out as they go along. Forget the ivory tower of accomplishment; learn about the everyday drama, tears, and adventures these awesome ladies face as they race to fix everything that men f***ed up.
This book isn’t going to turn you into a scientist. It won’t make you the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates or Sheryl Sandberg or Greta Thunberg. But it will show you that way more women than you thought are working in these fields and that they’re involved in awesome and incredible projects—some which seem like they’re lifted straight from Hogwarts. #slay #blackgirlmagic
In the words of Beyoncé, “Who runs the world? Girls! Girls!”
You can be that difference in the world.
Making a Difference Also Makes Her Feel Good: Great Nails, Great Minds
Pree Walia has really great nails, and she knows it. Today, one of her digits features a pizza emoji, another has the poop emoji, and a third has a crystal-clear image of Maverick, a fluffy brown sheepdog she considers the office mascot. “At my core, I’m a girly girl,” she said, pushing her waist-length brown curls behind one ear.
We meet in November 2019, inside Star Space, the Silicon Valley coworking center she works from. Walking through the space is like entering a CB2 catalogue: pastel colors, velvet sofas, and a hanging chair swing. “You might recognize this from our videos,” she said—the place is pretty enough to use as a backdrop for her company promotions.
On social media, Pree’s all about the fun times—her feed features beautiful sunsets and international travels, and she’s pictured in cute dresses, hanging with friends and swigging White Girl Rosé. With her love of fashion and beauty, Pree stands out among the tech bros in their Patagonia fleece-lined vests, joggers disguised as jeans, and AllBirds sneakers. The fact that she’s a girl also sets her apart; in Silicon Valley, men hold around 80 percent of all technology jobs.
It’s about the worst possible place to found a beauty startup, even when it’s a technology and beauty company. Working in beauty wasn’t in her life plan, but the beauty space—nails, in particular—has been her world for the last five years.
Pree didn’t pay a manicurist for the cheeky pizza emojis and puppies on her digits, and she didn’t paint them herself. Her tight-looking talons are courtesy of the Nailbot, a portable printer that prints nail art on her fingers. Designs are chosen via her cellphone app. She knows what she likes. Growing up, she had every manicure in the book—French tips, gel manicures, glitter, stripes, geometrics, with talons every color of the rainbow. “I like being a girl—whatever that means, [even if] it’s a socially constructed version of femininity,” she said. “I like getting my hair done. I like getting my nails done. I like getting spa treatments. They make me feel good.”
Making a difference also makes her feel good, which was why she founded her company, Preemadonna, with the Nailbot as her first product.
Sure, great nails won’t get you to the White House (even if they might help, just a little)—but if that’s all you see when you look at the Nailbot, you’re not thinking big enough.
“Our big vision: can you learn how to code nail art?” says Pree. She views the Nailbot as a stepping stone into the larger world of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and math). “The nature of this product is that it’s a vehicle for more: artists, hackers, coders, and programmers!” Yeet.
So yes, your nails will look sweet, but that’s just the beginning. Learning to build a touch-screen printer and coding in your nail designs will get you far in life. The idea is to use the Nailbot to get male, female, nonbinary, and trans people interested in technology. Once she has their attention, she introduces them to STEM initiatives and the MakerGirl program, which teaches 3D printing and STEM to girls ages seven through ten.
Here’s Why This Matters
For better or worse, the world runs on code right now; it’s how traffic lights change from red to green, how food gets from the field to our plates, and how medical robots perform a bunch of invasive operations. It’s how stores decide what dresses to restock and how schools evaluate your grades.
But most of this code is written by dudes. In 2018, women made up around 21 percent of the global tech workforce at Google and Facebook, the companies essentially running the world today. In 2014, this stat was worse; women made up 15 percent of tech jobs at Facebook. For women of color, it sucks more; in 2018, 0.8 percent of female tech hires at Google were Black and 1.4 percent were Hispanic. At Facebook, the numbers are so low they didn’t separate them by gender; 1.3 percent of all tech hires were Black, and 3.1 percent were Hispanic.
Working in technology is about more than writing the code that runs the world. Coders also get big salaries, big perks, and big power. They matter in the world order. So the fewer women there are on the payroll, the less it looks like women matter.
Sure, in the olden days, women stayed at home and men went to work. But people also had smallpox and polio!
Today, most schools run coding classes and special programs, so all genders get a shot at learning these skills. In many schools, they’re required subjects; if you fail Java 101, you have to retake it. But—and it’s a big but—while most everyone now learns to code in school, that doesn’t mean they code at home.
One study found that 40 percent of boys who learn to code at school will code at home for fun, compared to 5 percent of girls.
One reason for this is what’s available to code. Not every girl wants