Picture a Scientist

Abstract

Picture a Scientist is a documentary film about the journey of three women scientists -Dr. Nancy Hopkins, Dr. Raychelle Burks, and Dr. Jane Willenbring, who faced some of the most brutal forms of harassment in their respective professions. The film presents alarming statistics about women in science who have experienced sexism, discrimination, microaggressions, and issues with the gender pay gap.The three scientists describe the long-lasting impact these harassment experiences have had on their mental health. The cumulative impact of consistent harassment is the same as that of one sexual assault incident (Picture a Scientist). This documentary offers an insight into the thought process of women while facing gender-based discrimination and the aftereffects of it. This insight can be valuable for mental health professionals aiming to support women in science.Dr. Nancy Hopkins was a molecular biologist and professor of biology at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for forty years. During her undergraduate days, she worked in James Watson's lab. James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize for discovering the helical structure of the DNA. (Nobelprize.org) During a visit from Crick, one that Dr. Hopkins was extremely excited for, he laid his hands on her breasts and inquired about her work. At the time, sexual assault was not something people talked about. So, to avoid embarrassing Crick, Hopkins stayed silent and pretended nothing had happened.During her time as a junior faculty member at MIT, Dr. Hopkins states in the film, she had to be accommodating and "nice" to doctoral students and other faculty who would take materials from her lab without permission, so as to not appear "difficult". When the administration refused to believe that her lab space as a senior faculty was smaller than the labs of some junior faculty, she took a tape measure and measured every lab in the department.