Modern Science Inequalities

Finding systemic issues within science has proven to not be a struggle, even still today. Before attempting to continue the discussion of the racial and gender oriented issues within sceience today, I first had to find a modern study, and turned to BBC News to do so.

Being likely overly interested in the unknown and spooky feeling that space exploration gives me, I clicked on the first black hole article I saw. Titled Black hole breakthoughs win Nobel physics prize, the three scientists that were awarded the prize were discussed. The names were listed in the first scentence, and to my surprise they included a woman, but of course had her name listed last. Further, one scientist was discussed for essentially the entire article, and the woman, Andrea Ghez was hardly mentioned. When she was, rather than drawing more attention to her life and specific participation, they mentioned multiple times that she was the fourth woman to receive the award, with the only other mention of her being that she split a half of the award with another man. It is respectful to include that she was amongst the first women to receive the award, but to almost solely include this is degrading. Being such a highly regarded award, her specific involvement and reason for earning it should have been discussed in great detail. It is almost as if today it is enough for minorities to just be included, as if some favor was done. She may have been a recipient, but the article did not suggest her to be as large of a hero as it did the male counterpart. And to take it a step further, I assume that under these three are hard working individuals that provided a great amount of help, just to receive no recognition, and watch their work help to paint these larger figures as the heroes of black hole science. Overall, I think this is a representation of the modern issues within science, and how things have not necessarily improved much, but rather just changed the ways that oppression still exists.