This Female Scientist Writes A Wikipedia Entry Every Time She's Harassed

Female scientists have made some incredible contributions to our world, but to this day, they still get harassed by their male colleagues. While that's simply not cool, Emily Temple-Wood's reaction to the harassment is pretty awesome.

Rather than letting herself sit around and get frustrated, she has dedicated herself to uploading a new Wikipedia article about a female scientist every time she gets an inappropriate email, some form of physical contact or any other unwanted attention from a male co-worker. She's been adding entries since 2012 and has since added hundreds of articles on feminine scientists from all backgrounds. While it would be nice if Ms. Temple-Wood went through her career without sexist comments, at least something great is coming from it.

Via NY Mag


Newest 5
Newest 5 Comments

Okay, we were tolerating this until the name calling started. This thread is now closed to comments. Remember, name-calling and abusive comments will be deleted; repeat offenders will be banned.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Not being in a scholarly debate isn't an excuse for contradicting yourself and being wrong. Maybe on the rough-and-tumble internet you should grow a pair so you're not so easily provoked into trying to dig yourself out of a hole. The internet doesn't need more mens rights advocates grinding offtopic axes and confusing namecalling for making a point.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
There's no discord. I promote vigorous ridicule to stop political witchhunts and cultural garbage, which have descended upon our country and threaten civil society. If someone tries to punch me in the face, I punch back twice as hard. If my words ruffle feathers, all for the better - I'm trying to draw attention to victims of the PC cult who suffered from more than "mean words", who were punished by courts, University disciplinary boards, or lost their jobs because of smears. I'm giving an opinion on the rough-and-tumble Internet, not writing a brief for a court or other body, nor am I engaged in scholarly debate with you, so stop clutching your pearls. This isn't the forum to laboriously contextualize or list your assumptions.

I don't care who you are. Glad that you escaped the maw of the system without injury; others aren't so lucky. I can't go on any longer, I feel like I'm debating an undergraduate liberal arts essay auto-generator.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
If you just wanted to say the story was incongruous with your experiences, that would have been easy: "Did she really have that many inappropriate interactions? This sounds far worse than my experience with college campuses and it trivializes the harassment woman face in more extreme places." I would've found a response like that quite reasonable. But you spend half of your posts making assumptions and personal attacks that suggest motivation beyond just sharing. Do you not see the discord between promoting use of ridicule and malicious rhetoric while complaining of witchhunts and political rats?

I never said I believed her, nor do I disbelieve her. I'm trying to not make guesses about situations I've been told little about, but I have experienced environments that make the story plausible. This comes from having worked at half a dozen universities, over nearly two decades, and several private companies not counting consulting work on the side. I've worked with groups ranging from engineers to miners to construction workers to production shops, plus a lot of time around restaurant work.

There is no doubt that some men's lives have been ruined and others fear things, but that is a statement without context or scale. I have actually been an innocent male subjected to disciplinary actions when I was a university student due to the actions of a subset of our group (as I said, I've been on different sides of the disciplinary process). Our lives weren't ruined, we weren't left in fear, and I find discussion of such gratuitous to this story.

So, what do you hope to achieve by speaking out? You've shared very little of your experiences and spend most of your time talking about what you think is true of others. What are others supposed to take away, considering, for example, you try to make a point about my sex but can't get that correct? Am I to suppose such assumptions factor into all of your experience?
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Your post reads like an essay submitted by an undergraduate for a liberal arts course. Your writing style would probably earn good grades in today's lax teaching environment, but in the world beyond campus it reads like parroted, bureaucratic pettifoggery.

When people make absurd claims, they should expect to be called out, even ridiculed. That's what a healthy civic society feels like. Go ahead, give me your "numbers", "subtle reasoning", and brilliant media analysis. I speak from what I have witnessed with my own eyes : men's lives ruined, other men cowering in fear. And, having spent over a decade at college campuses, and a decade in the workplace, the idea that college campuses are worse is so laughable that I can only believe you write from within the cloistered confines of academe. I don't believe her. Based on my experinces, her story rings false. You do believe her, apparently. I don't hope to convince you or anyone else here, but I do think its important to speak out from time to time.
Abusive comment hidden. (Show it anyway.)
Commenting is closed.

We hope you like this article!
Please help us grow by sharing:

Get Updates In Your Inbox

Free weekly emails, plus get access
to subscriber-only prizes.

We won't share your email. You can cancel at any time.
Email This Post to a Friend
"This Female Scientist Writes A Wikipedia Entry Every Time She's Harassed"

Separate multiple emails with a comma. Limit 5.

 

Success! Your email has been sent!

close window
neat stories? Like us on Facebook!
Close: I already like you guys!