Women Scientists. Listen To Three Remarkable Women Speak.

By Karen and Erica

Women in science and medicine have had to fight like women everywhere to break into their professions. A recent book, and some amazing women, tell us their stories—stories that resonate with all of us.

We at Lustre have had a long relationship with the Katz Institute for Women’s Health—a cutting edge part of the Northwell Health system that focuses on a little known fact—that women’s bodies are different from men’s bodies, in every conceivable way, not just the ways relating to child-bearing. We learned this, and so much more, from Dr. Stacey Rosen, a cardiologist who runs the Katz, and advocates tirelessly for women—patients, medical personnel, community members. And from her sidekick, Dr. Jill Kalman, also a cardiologist, who runs Lenox Hill Hospital and who ran it so well during the worst horrors of the pandemic that Netflix made a series about it.

These two amazing women were recently joined by a third, Kate Zernike, a Pulitzer prize-winning author, for a Fireside Chat about Ms. Zernike’s new book, The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT and the Fight For Women In Science. The book is sensational, a wonderfully written account of one woman’s decisions as she navigated a society that put motherhood at odds with hard careers, began a fight for equality, made the mistake many of us did, believing that the fight had been won, and then joined with other women scientists who also realized the fight was just beginning.

Hired to prestigious universities at the dawn of affirmative action efforts in the 1970s, Dr. Hopkins and her peers embarked on their careers believing that discrimination against women was a thing of the past—that science was, at last, a pure meritocracy. For years they explained away the discrimination they experienced as the exception, not the rule. Only when these few women came together after decades of underpayment and the denial of credit, advancement, and equal resources to do their work did they recognize the relentless pattern: women were often marginalized and minimized, especially as they grew older.

Drs. Rosen, Kalman and Ms. Zernike gathered to talk about the book, and their own experiences in the world of medicine and science. Their talk is inspiring, sometimes infuriating, and paints a clear picture of how all of these women made it to the pinnacle of their professions. (Spoiler alert—working together is key.) While their focus is the scientific world, you will surely see yourselves in their stories, no matter where your career took you.

You can hear them speak here. They will make you smile. So will the book.