South San Francisco seeks experience, discussions from the STEM industry

Zernike started the idea for the book in 2018, coming out of the #MeToo movement, which highlighted egregious behavior women had experienced at the hands of men in the workplace. But, while important, she noticed there was likely an even more pervasive issue that wasn’t as widely discussed. 

“I was thinking, the more stubborn and insidious problem, and the problem that includes more women, is this marginalization. It’s this idea that you’re not included in the email, you’re not included in the email chain, someone takes credit for your idea. Gradually, the accumulation of that — that you get pushed and pushed and pushed — is ultimately more damaging,” she said.

The talk was centered around “The Exceptions,” Zernike’s book about Nancy Hopkins’ storied career as a scientist, which was also fraught with subtle and not-so-subtle prejudice. Hopkins led an all-women campaign that eventually culminated in MIT’s admission that it had long discriminated against female scientists, a story Zernike originally broke for The Boston Globe decades earlier. 

Christine Pelosi, former deputy city attorney in San Francisco and daughter of U.S. Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, also led the talk, reminiscing on a case she worked on in which a female city employee would have had to take on more responsibilities than her male colleagues to get the same promotion. 

“To get a Ph.D., and therefore, be able to supervise others, or men, she would have had to do all the housework, all the tasks, except the field work at the sewer that would allow her to collect field samples that she could then use in her Ph.D.,” Pelosi said.  

While the April 11 discussion centered around gender-specific biases, it was just one of the city’s four-part STEM series, meant to not only showcase career opportunities but also understand the broader landscape of the industry, historically and present day. Philecia Harris, the city’s adult services librarian, said they are hoping to highlight opportunities for not only women to enter the STEM field, but also local South City residents who may not even know of all the opportunities in their backyard. 

“People know, ‘I can be a doctor,’ or ‘I can work in a lab,’ but after that, nobody really knows what sort of careers are available and what to do in tech,” Harris said. “We want to have young people and also adults have a better understanding of what you can do in tech, so that local people can actually have a chance to apply to some of the positions that are in their own city.”

The STEM series, largely funded by a Genentech grant, will hold two more events in May. Brittany Austin, library program manager for Adult Services, said while the city offers technology courses, they intentionally broadened the format and subject matter to appeal to a wider audience. 

“With these series, we’re focusing on an adult and young adult audience, but we’re also trying to be creative in how we bring in the community,” Austin said. “The library has always offered STEM programming, but we just wanted to expand upon it.”