Skip to content
ADVERTISEMENT
Sign In
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
  • More
  • Sections
    • News
    • Advice
    • The Review
  • Topics
    • Data
    • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
    • Finance & Operations
    • International
    • Leadership & Governance
    • Teaching & Learning
    • Scholarship & Research
    • Student Success
    • Technology
    • Transitions
    • The Workplace
  • Magazine
    • Current Issue
    • Special Issues
    • Podcast: College Matters from The Chronicle
  • Newsletters
  • Events
    • Virtual Events
    • Chronicle On-The-Road
    • Professional Development
  • Ask Chron
  • Store
    • Featured Products
    • Reports
    • Data
    • Collections
    • Back Issues
  • Jobs
    • Find a Job
    • Post a Job
    • Professional Development
    • Career Resources
    • Virtual Career Fair
    Upcoming Events:
    College Advising
    Serving Higher Ed
    Chronicle Festival 2025
Sign In
The Graduate Adviser

As Scientists Speak Out About Science, Women and Young Scholars Lead the Way

By Leonard Cassuto April 19, 2018
MARCH For Science Women
John Flores, Creative Commons

Loud noises are emanating from the laboratory these days, but they’re declamations, not explosions. This month scientists and other advocates for science assembled in cities around the country for the second annual March for Science. The organizers called on people to march for “a future where science is fully embraced in public life and policy.”

To continue reading for FREE, please sign in.

Sign In

Or subscribe now to read with unlimited access for as low as $10/month.

Don’t have an account? Sign up now.

A free account provides you access to a limited number of free articles each month, plus newsletters, job postings, salary data, and exclusive store discounts.

Sign Up

Loud noises are emanating from the laboratory these days, but they’re declamations, not explosions. This month scientists and other advocates for science assembled in cities around the country for the second annual March for Science. The organizers called on people to march for “a future where science is fully embraced in public life and policy.”

Researchers were once content to let their work speak for them. What changed? The politicization of science — partisan debates over climate change and evolution are two prominent examples — has worsened over time. Now scientists want to be heard in the public square.

“Lots of people out there are making reckless, wild claims about what is and isn’t true, and about science itself,” said Naomi Oreskes, a professor of the history of science at Harvard University. “It’s tremendously important for scientists to get out there and explain what they do — to everyone, beginning with school children.”

That message is spreading. Science-communication courses have proliferated at colleges and universities in recent years. Janet Alder, an associate professor of neuroscience and cell biology and assistant dean of graduate studies at Rutgers University, teaches a good one in partnership with Nicholas M. Ponzio, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School. “This course is about the importance of communication,” they write in their joint syllabus. Their course teaches graduate students both to explain their research clearly and to “emphasize its significance.”

Such outreach is multiplying outside the classroom. too. In March, Science Talk, a new science-communication organization, held its second annual conference in Portland, Ore.

Science Talk is two years old. It was founded by Allison Coffin, an associate professor of integrative physiology and neuroscience at Washington State University at Vancouver, and Janine Castro, a scientist at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Both had taught science-communication workshops, and “wanted to create a forum for science communicators to come together, share ideas, and network,” Coffin said in an email interview.

Women are more likely to scale back their research careers for the sake of a partner than men. Those are not new findings; they date back to the 1970s.

The organization has grown swiftly. Its March conference attracted more than 250 participants, including academics, freelance writers, leaders of other science-communication organizations, and government employees.

Science Talk’s population skews young. Its biggest constituency is probably graduate students and postdocs. Panshak Dakup, a doctoral student in pharmaceutical science at Washington State University, is one of them. He won a travel award to attend Science Talk’s conference in 2017, and returned this year.

“Science communication is crucial in my life as a graduate student,” Dakup wrote in an email. “In my interactions with professionals and laymen, there is almost always a forum where I need to explain what I do as a graduate student.” He also talks about his research on a radio show, Greetings From America, which is aired in Nigeria.

“Everyone in science should attend” Science Talk, Dakup said. Facts and “sound interpretation” have to push back against “fake news.”

Toward that end, the group’s conference featured discussions with people who work in science communication, sharing their expertise on how to talk about controversial issues — like vaccine safety or gun control — in public settings. How do you control the room when things get loud? How do you defuse conflict? Just as important, participants practiced their skills in workshops on subjects like using social media, creating an effective PowerPoint, or crafting a good elevator pitch.

ADVERTISEMENT

Another attendee, Jessica F. Hebert, a doctoral student in biology at Portland State University, is studying reproductive health, especially during pregnancy. “It is my goal to make science accessible,” she wrote in an email. Accordingly, Hebert supplements her lab time by giving lectures and doing hands-on workshops at a science museum. She also extends her reach via cyberspace by contributing to podcasts like This Week in Science and Geek in the City. Hebert sees herself as a public educator. “I want to help fight misconceptions where I can,” she said.

One of those misconceptions concerns gender stereotypes. When children are asked “what a scientist looks like,” said Hebert, many “will draw old bearded white men.” But those white men, bearded or otherwise, are not much in evidence at science-communication events. Women, and a smaller number of nonwhite men, comprise a solid majority.

“This is a problem we see across the board in science outreach and science education,” said Harvard’s Oreskes. “The areas of interface and outreach are dominated by women.”

Why might that be? Oreskes points first to what she calls “cultural resonance.”

ADVERTISEMENT

“There’s a general cultural reinforcement for girls to care about community,” she said. “If you’re a girl, you take that on board.” Boys, by contrast, are socialized to compete for themselves.

Second, it’s a tough road for women in science. “Women are more likely than men to drop out along the way” to becoming a scientist, said Oreskes, or to veer off to more flexible careers than lab science. Women are more likely to scale back their research careers for the sake of a partner than men. Those are not new findings; they date back to the 1970s.

“Women are more likely not to get academic jobs,” Oreskes said, “or if they do, not to come up for tenure. So they hedge their bets.” Oreskes herself “came close to leaving academic life” early in her career, she said.

Risk management, then, leads women to consider the possibilities of “diverse audiences and different career settings.” They’re more open to the varied possibilities that science communication implicitly and explicitly represents. (The career-diversity events for doctoral students that are expanding throughout academe are peopled by a disproportionate number of women also. I suspect that the gender imbalance there directly correlates with the one in science communication.)

ADVERTISEMENT

The movement toward public science matters for everyone today, not just scientists. And it certainly doesn’t matter for just female scientists. Scientists are rallying everywhere, and that’s good for all of us. More aspiring male scientists need to get out there, too.

As the astronomer Phil Plait out it in his Science Talk keynote address, “Science doesn’t speak for itself. It needs an advocate — you.”

Leonard Cassuto, a professor of English at Fordham University, writes regularly about graduate education for The Chronicle. His latest book is The Graduate School Mess: What Caused It and How We Can Fix It, published by Harvard University Press. He welcomes comments, suggestions, and stories at lcassuto@erols.com. Twitter handle: @LCassuto. Read his previous columns in “The Graduate Adviser” series here.

We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
Share
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Facebook
  • Email
cassuto_leonard.jpg
About the Author
Leonard Cassuto
Leonard Cassuto is a professor of English at Fordham University who writes regularly for The Chronicle about graduate education. His newest book is Academic Writing as if Readers Matter, from Princeton University Press. He co-wrote, with Robert Weisbuch, The New Ph.D.: How to Build a Better Graduate Education. He welcomes comments and suggestions at cassuto@fordham.edu. Find him on X @LCassuto.
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT

Related Content

Rethinking the Scientific Career
The Making of a Public Intellectual
Should Academics Talk to Katie Couric?
Teaching Students to Be Public Intellectuals
How to Go Public, and Why We Must

More News

Protesters attend a demonstration in support of Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, March 10, 2025, in New York.
First-Amendment Rights
Noncitizen Professors Testify About Chilling Effect of Others’ Detentions
Photo-based illustration of a rock preciously suspended by a rope over three beakers.
Broken Promise
U.S. Policy Made America’s Research Engine the Envy of the World. One President Could End That.
lab-costs-promo.jpg
Research Expenses
What Does It Cost to Run a Lab?
Research illustration Microscope
Dreams Deferred
How Trump’s Cuts to Science Funding Are Derailing Young Scholars’ Careers

From The Review

University of Virginia President Jim Ryan keeps his emotions in check during a news conference, Monday, Nov. 14, 2022 in Charlottesville. Va. Authorities say three people have been killed and two others were wounded in a shooting at the University of Virginia and a student is in custody. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
The Review | Opinion
Jim Ryan’s Resignation Is a Warning
By Robert Zaretsky
Photo-based illustration depicting a close-up image of a mouth of a young woman with the letter A over the lips and grades in the background
The Review | Opinion
When Students Want You to Change Their Grades
By James K. Beggan
Photo-based illustration of a student and a professor, each occupying a red circle in a landscape of scribbles.
The Review | Opinion
Meet Students Where They Are? Maybe Not.
By Mark Horowitz

Upcoming Events

Chronfest25_Virtual-Events_Page_862x574.png
Chronicle Festival: Innovation Amid Uncertainty
07-16-Advising-InsideTrack - forum assets v1_Plain.png
The Evolving Work of College Advising
Lead With Insight
  • Explore Content
    • Latest News
    • Newsletters
    • Letters
    • Free Reports and Guides
    • Professional Development
    • Events
    • Chronicle Store
    • Chronicle Intelligence
    • Jobs in Higher Education
    • Post a Job
  • Know The Chronicle
    • About Us
    • Vision, Mission, Values
    • DEI at The Chronicle
    • Write for Us
    • Work at The Chronicle
    • Our Reporting Process
    • Advertise With Us
    • Brand Studio
    • Accessibility Statement
  • Account and Access
    • Manage Your Account
    • Manage Newsletters
    • Individual Subscriptions
    • Group and Institutional Access
    • Subscription & Account FAQ
  • Get Support
    • Contact Us
    • Reprints & Permissions
    • User Agreement
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Privacy Policy
    • California Privacy Policy
    • Do Not Sell My Personal Information
1255 23rd Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20037
© 2025 The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is academe’s most trusted resource for independent journalism, career development, and forward-looking intelligence. Our readers lead, teach, learn, and innovate with insights from The Chronicle.
Follow Us
  • twitter
  • instagram
  • youtube
  • facebook
  • linkedin