“Lady Scientist: Rosalind Franklin” by Hark! A Vagrant

Life as a woman scientist was a very different life…

Among the major breakthroughs in science was the discovery of the structure of DNA, the molecule of genetics and of life itself. The discovery was made in a time when women’s contributions were near invisible next to their male counterparts, particularly in the field of science. As the brief comic strip above shows, the academic climate was sexist and misogynistic.

From the artist:

The trouble with reading about a given woman's history who was born before your mom is that sometimes, they were hilarious, powerful, tough, loud, et cetera et cetera all good comic making material! But then sometimes, man, the main thing about them is that they just got screwed, big time. I think when I read about Rosalind Franklin, or Mary Anning, or whoever, of just how shitty stealing someone else's ideas really is. 

-Kate Beaton of Hark! A Vagrant

There were few women scientists back in the 1950s. There are many more women now, and in just about every field of science. Despite this fact, many girls in the U.S. grow up not believing that they can be scientists and that they can do science. Many still associate STEM fields with men and boys, partly because they, their stories, and their contributions are the most visible. We need to expose all of our students to diverse role models in the sciences.

The manner in which we introduce important figures in the sciences (and sometimes, too, the controversy they bring) does not have to be limited to formal text readings. Comics and graphics can be equally, if not sometimes more, generative as pedagogical tools. Part of queering science education is to dare to be different, to think the unthinkable. That includes interrogating the materials and media we depend on in our teaching and thinking more openly about what could be used in their place.

The power of comics is perhaps best conveyed in this quote:

To say what couldn’t otherwise be said, perhaps what isn’t permitted to be said or imagined, defying the ordinary processes of thought, which are policed, shaped and re-shaped by all sorts of pedagogical as well as ideological pressures… I felt that comics freed me to think and imagine and see differently.

(Whitlock, 2006, as cited in Niccolini, 2016, p. 236)