The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science

"The stories within are compelling, and I wish I had been able to read them before I embarked on my own career as a scientist. The contributors' and editors' voices emanate clearly from the pages. The writing is an impressive combination of approachable yet sophisticated, powerful yet playful, meticulously researched and fact-based, yet balanced with personal, often painful narratives. -- Lindsay Zanno, head of paleontology, North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences The Bearded Lady Project invites us all think more critically about the role of gender and gender bias in the sciences. This project shows the true depths of diversity that exist within the fields of paleontology and geology and highlights the profound challenges that still exist for those who do not fit in with stereotypical ideal of who a scientist is. For some, viewing the images in this book will feel uncomfortable. Take that discomfort, examine it closely, and then read every single essay in this volume. The diverse perspectives and stories from so many voices in paleontology and geology, paired with critical essays by scholars of gender and performance studies, provides a depth and context to the Bearded Lady Project which elevate this work beyond a compendium of personal narratives and turn it into a deeply insightful and necessary contribution to our understanding of what it means to be a scientist. -- Phoebe A. Cohen, associate professor of geosciences, Williams College The Bearded Lady Project is a necessary novelty. It's snarky, beautiful, and increasingly powerful in the evolution of its message: Don't ever assume you know what a scientist looks like. These essays-critical, poignant examinations of societal and historical perceptions of genius-remind us how much scientists have to say about the world in which their research takes place. -- Emily Graslie, chief curiosity correspondent at the Field Museum of Natural History The portraits in The Bearded Lady Project intentionally cause double takes, forcing the viewer to look, then look again. But their real power lies in how they require us to look inward and see that antediluvian ideas about who can and cannot do science still linger. The accompanying stories of remarkable women in paleontology make one hopeful that soon these old stereotypes will finally go extinct. -- Marcia Bjornerud, professor of geosciences at Lawrence University, author of Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World