'How Many Female Scientists Do You Know?'
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Review Endeavour Vol.29 No.2 June 2005 ‘How many female scientists do you know?’ Robert A. Jones 4 Leighton Avenue, Meols, Wirral, UK CH47 0LZ The stereotypical scientist wears a lab-coat, is often Female scientists in British films eccentric and is usually male. Images of female scientists The characters of the female scientists in most of these in popular culture remain rare. Some of the first films are not simply versions of the male scientist portrayals of women in science occurred in a handful stereotype played by the opposite sex. They are ordinary of British films made during the 1950s and 1960s. These working women and their situations accurately reflected films reflected the difficulties experienced by women in the conditions for women working in science at that time. science at the time, but they might also explain why However, this is not because the film-makers were representations of female scientists in film continue to searching for realism, but because they were hoping to downplay their role as scientists and emphasize their broaden the appeal of the films by including a ‘love identity as women. interest’. Several generalizations can be made about the way that female scientists are portrayed in these films. Carry On with science If you were looking for an image of a female scientist in a Alone but ordinary British film, you probably wouldn’t think of starting with In all of these films there is only one female scientist the Carry On films. But in the 1960 film Watch Your Stern, working as part of the research team. Even when there is not one representation of a female scientist but laboratory assistants appear, as they do in A Jolly Bad two. ‘The team responsible for the clicko Carry On series Fellow, they are male. The female scientists are generally are up to their profitable yock-raising larks’ wrote a critic in his review of the film for the entertainment magazine Variety. The plot is typically convoluted: Hattie Jacques plays Agatha Potter, a British Admiralty scientist called in to explain the failure of a new model of torpedo. However, the crew of the ship that is testing the weapon has lost the top-secret plans of the torpedo, so they propose that a naval rating (played by Kenneth Connor) should dress up as a woman, impersonate Potter and pass off plans of the ship’s air-conditioning as the torpedo schematics in order to cover their blunder (Figure 1). The suggestion is greeted with scorn: ‘How many female scientists do you know?’ This response poses some interesting questions about the challenges faced by female scientists and the way the general public perceives them. Several stereotypes of male scientists have been identified in popular culture [1,2] and they share certain characteristics: they are frequently outsiders, their differ- ence from ordinary people signalled by eccentricity of appearance or behaviour, and they tend to be obsessive about their work, lacking a normal emotional range (Figure 2). It seems reasonable to expect a version of this stereotype in the images of female scientists, and this does seem to be the case in Watch Your Stern. However, this turns out to be an exception: a careful analysis of a group of eight British films released between 1950–1965 that have a female scientist as a major character is revealing (Table 1). Figure 1. Hattie Jacques playing Agatha Potter in Watch Your Stern. Alongside her is Kenneth Connor, the naval rating who tries to impersonate Potter. Image Corresponding author: Jones, R.A. ([email protected]). supplied by the British Film Institute and reproduced with permission from CanalC Image UK Ltd. www.sciencedirect.com 0160-9327/$ - see front matter Q 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.endeavour.2005.03.005 Review Endeavour Vol.29 No.2 June 2005 85 Qualified but subordinate In most cases, the women are treated as valued colleagues. The most explicit example of discrimination comes from Professor Seaton, head of the research team in Suspect. When he is told that the scientist Lucy Byrne has a difficult private life, Seaton remarks that ‘all women have; they’re either in love or not in love. Either way it interferes with their work.’ Nevertheless, judging by their expressions, Byrne’s other colleagues do not share this attitude. However, the women in these films are clearly sub- ordinate to their male colleagues. In those films where the woman is working in a group, a man is in charge. The two most senior female scientists, Frances Grey in Highly Dangerous and Agatha Potter in Watch Your Stern seem to be outside a research group, so their position in the hierarchy is difficult to judge. But even these two senior scientists are referred to throughout the films as ‘Miss’ instead of by an academic title they must surely have earned, which shows the focus of the films is on their gender rather than their scientific prowess. Furthermore, female scientists are often shown performing tasks that would appear to be below their skill levels, such as taking notes or typing. In the opening scene of Suspect, Lucy Byrne is shown writing down results that are read out to her by her male colleague. No family ties Despite the relative maturity of some of the women, none of them are married or have children (although Margaret in Konga acts as a surrogate wife to Dr Decker, who describes her as ‘my secretary, assistant, housekeeper, confidant and most of all my good friend’). Some of them do take on a nurturing role – Frances Grey is seen telling a story to her young nephew, and Caroline Cartier in Figure 2. Traditional images of male scientists. In (a) Michael Redgrave is playing The Net tidies her boyfriend’s room while waiting for Barnes Wallace in The Dam Busters as he briefs members of the RAF who will be flying a mission that will deploy his ‘bouncing bomb’. In (b) Alec Guiness provides a him – but the absence of formal family ties for these more eccentric approach to playing a scientist as Sidney Stratton in The Man in the characters suggests that family life and a career in science White Suit. Images supplied by the British Film Institute and reproduced with are incompatible for a woman. Professor Seaton again has permission from Canal C Image UK Ltd. a view on this: ‘Women are all clock-watchers’, he says. ‘Only thirty years to have their babies in, and anything ordinary women and, with the exception of Watch Your which isn’t to do with babies is a waste of time. That’s why Stern, do not exhibit the eccentricities of the male they’re no good to science.’ But again, Seaton’s view does stereotype. Most of the female scientists are in their not seem to be shared by the rest of his group. early-twenties to mid-thirties and dress accordingly. They wear white coats when appropriate, but more usually Romantic plots typical office attire. On social occasions they wear dresses, The absence of commitment to family means that the but there is certainly no female equivalent of the bow tie women in six of these films are free to assume their major ‘uniform’ that is frequently used in film to identify the role – the ‘love interest’. Even in Watch Your Stern, the male scientist in a formal setting. fake Agatha is pursued by the admiral with amorous Table 1. Female scientists in film from 1950–1965 Title Director Release Date Scientist Actor Highly Dangerous Roy Baker 1950 Frances Grey Margaret Lockwood The Net Anthony Asquith 1953 Caroline Cartier Muriel Pavlow Spaceways Terence Fisher 1953 Lisa Frank Eva Bartok Konga John Lemont 1960 Margaret Margo Johns Suspect Boulting Bros. 1960 Lucy Byrne Virginia Maskell Watch Your Stern Gerald Thomas 1960 Agatha Potter Hattie Jacques (Kenneth Connor) A Jolly Bad Fellow Don Chaffey 1964 Delia Brooks Janet Munro The Night Caller John Grilling 1965 Ann Barlow Patricia Haines www.sciencedirect.com 86 Review Endeavour Vol.29 No.2 June 2005 intent. Mostly the plots have the women involved in a look after their children [6]. Employment practices problematic romantic relationship, usually with a male enshrined the distinction between single working women scientist in their group. The resolution she desires is that and married stay-at-home mothers. For example, up until the relationship becomes recognized and permanent. For the late 1940s, the British Civil Service forced women to example, Lisa Frank in Spaceways is in love with the chief resign once they married. engineer Steve Mitchell, but he is married. When his wife By contrast, leaving work on marriage or pregnancy disappears, Steve is accused of murder. Lisa declares her was not mandatory in British scientific establishments. love for him, and tries to prove he is innocent. Finally, However, it does seem to have been accepted as the thing their relationship is able to progress when Steve’s wife is to do, as the following example of a female scientist at the shot by the spy she has run away with. Common Cold Research Unit illustrates: This kind of ‘happy ending’ for the female scientist is Pam Ball joined immediately upon completing her not always realized. Margaret in Konga and Delia Brooks secondary education and was given basic training in in A Jolly Bad Fellow want to marry their scientist lovers, our laboratory. She then worked as a techni- but they are both killed. At first, Delia tries to blackmail cian.The object of her affections.worked here as her married boss with whom she is having an affair: a PhD student until he got his doctorate.