This week, the world was enchanted when the National Science Foundation released the first ever image of a black hole. Among the memes and debates and general excitement, people also turned the spotlight on Katie Bouman, the 29-year-old scientist who developed a crucial algorithm that helped produce theIt was a great moment for women in science. In fact, it’s a great time for women in science as far as visibility is concerned. Stories of powerful women in STEM fields are trending in virtually every cultural sphere, from young adult novels to clothing lines to entertainment and film, where the real-life women of “Hidden Figures” become household names and fictional women like “Black Panther’s” Shuri serve as a different kind of superhero for aspiring young minds.
Then, of course, there’s the memory of decades of hard-working STEM women that cascade backward from achievements like Bouman’s. MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab compared a photo of Bouman among stacks of hard drives to a famous 1969 photo of computer scientist Margaret Hamilton standing by the thousands of sheets of code she and her team wrote for the Apollo Project. These led to mentions of Annie Cannon, Ada Lovelace and other prominent scientific minds throughout history.
Yes, it’s a great time for celebrating women in science. Unfortunately, research shows that women in STEM fields face persistent challenges and biases that limit their influence and growth, and may dissuade other women from pursuing STEM professions despite clear cultural encouragement at large.