Abstract:
Wertheim's work on science and gender aims to help illuminate the obstacles women face to full participation in STEM fields, while also celebrating science and math as domains of wonder to which women can have access. Wertheim's interest in gender and science led her to write her ground-breaking book Pythagoras Trousers (1995), a history of the relationship between physics and religion that also explores how this entanglement has acted as a barrier to women. For 10 years in her native Australia, she wrote monthly columns about science and tech for women’s magazines including Vogue Australia and Australian Elle, and may be the only journalist in the world to have held such a position. Her commitment to equity led her to conceive and write a six-part television science series aimed at teenage girls for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Titled Catalyst (ABC 1990), the series remains a landmark in TV science programming. More than 20 years before The Big Bang, Wertheim's series demonstrated STEM principles via activities designed to appeal to girls – mathematical patterns in pantyhose, electric motors in a hair-dryer.
For more information about her talks and Margaret, please visit our website: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/stem/seminar/wertheim_visit.php
