Tech Professor Examines Science and Sex

Carol Colatrella, Georgia Tech professor and Midtown mother of two, recently published her third book, Toys and Tools in Pink: Cultural Narratives of Gender, Science, and Technology.

The book discusses the media’s stereotypical representations of women in fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), and how these social messages inhibit female advancement in real world science. Colatrella is a professor of literature and cultural studies at Georgia Tech, and co-director of the Georgia Tech Center for the Study of Women, Science and Technology.

Colatrella will be at the Barnes & Noble at Georgia Tech at noon on Wednesday to present her book.

In addition to signing book copies, the author will give a brief discourse about one female stereotype discussed in her book, called the Babe Scientist. Colatrella explained that the Babe Scientist is a fictional female who is identified more by her femininity than her scientific work -- the character who typically wears a lab coat, but takes it off to reveal a curvaceous body. She hopes colleagues, friends and students will come to the event (she said students will not receive extra credit for attending).

The book begins with a quote from Lawrence Summers in 2005, former president of Harvard University, in which he states that women face difficulty excelling in science and engineering not because of socialization and discrimination, but because of “issues of intrinsic aptitude.” Colatrella said she published her book largely as an oppositional response to that speech, and in her research concluded that “the media seems to fit his views.”

The book is academic, but accessible and interesting to anyone who likes to read or watch the texts it analyzes, according to Colatrella. She said Katharine Hepburn and the movies Contact, Twister and I.Q. are mentioned in the book. Other female characters discussed are mothers, medical professionals and girls in children’s cartoons.

The author said her interest in studying struggles of female scientists may have begun when she got a "D" in a high school physics class (she quickly changed to a botany class). But the idea for her book, according to the author, came from reading about fictional character-types of female criminals while researching for her previous publication, Literature and Moral Reform: Melville and the Discipline of Reading.

Though she has been researching and writing Tools and Toys in Pink for 25 years, Colatrella said now is the perfect time to publish. She said our culture is cultivating more accessibility for women to pursue scientific jobs. Summer camps hosted at Georgia Tech and other Atlanta initiatives seek to give girls hands-on experience and ideas for future careers in science and technology, she said. One example: the Inman Middle School club for girls excelling in math and science (GEMS).

Colatrella is hopeful that the media will begin to represent fictional female scientists more positively.

“Now seems to be the moment,” she said.