Another outstanding piece from Mr Collins. It starts:
There is a play on the West End at present, Photograph 51, starring Nicole Kidman. She plays the role of Rosalind Franklin, the scientist who did ground breaking work on the structure of DNA in the 1950s. Kate Mulcahy, writing in The Telegraph on 15/9/15, tells Franklin’s story thus: “Marginalised during her research in the 1950s, ostracised by male peers and ultimately overlooked by the establishment, Franklin’s data was used without her permission and her contribution to science was drastically under-acknowledged.”
Mulcahy claims that Franklin is “the latest forgotten female scientist to be thrust into the limelight” and that she is “a quintessential example of the maligned woman in science”. In similar vein, Nicole Kidman has said she wants to “shine a light on the role of Franklin and women like her whose quiet hard work has been overshadowed by pushier men.” And again, Anita Singh, writing in The Telegraph on 13/9/15, opined of Franklin that she “played a key role in discovering the structure of DNA while working at King’s College London, but was effectively written out of history.”
I beg to differ…
The relating of the story is a tour de force. It is followed by an equally interesting piece on the genders in STEMM subjects, linking to a government website which reveals inter alia:
Combining all science-based subjects, the number of women graduates exceeds that of men at first degree level by 7%, whilst there is parity at postgraduate level. Contrary to popular belief, men do not dominate in sciences as a whole due to women’s dominance in biologically based subjects.
He comments:
There are vast resources being extended to encourage more women in STEMM, not least by Athena Swan but also by the hordes like Kate Mulcahy who are interested only in advancing women with no regard whatsoever for the other sex.
As far as I am aware, there are no initiatives to address the male disadvantage which is emphatically apparent in the above statistics. Instead the persistent focus of attention, effort and funding is to encourage more women into STEMM, the dwindling island of 17% of qualifications in which men remain dominant.
That women are dominant, often very dominant indeed, in 83% of cases is implicitly regarded as fine and dandy. This partisan focus on the educational attainment of the sex that least requires assistance is presented to us as being the pursuit of “equality”.
