The successful show “The Big Bang Theory” (who hasn’t heard of it?) includes representations of women with technical careers. The neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler or the microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski come to mind, but that’s not all. There is an episode in which Sheldon, Howard and Leonard also explore the possibility of getting more women to pursue a career in science. Do you remember which episode this was?
Of all its seasons, we can highlight season 6, episode 18 titled: The Contractual Obligation Implementation. In this episode, Leonard, Sheldon and Howard have to promote women’s careers in science as part of their contract at the university. The three delve into a very specific issue that they want to propose to the University in order to avoid prejudices in the peer-review process. They suggest using initials instead of the author’s full name, in order to avoid biases in the evaluator.
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As he plays videogames, Shelden comes up with the possible solution arguing that Leonard’s ideas don’t work because they focus on university students, which is already too late. “You need to design an outreach programme that targets girls at the middle school level and sets them on an academic track towards science”, Sheldon explains.
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“Who likes sciences?” This is Leonard’s question when they finally go to a school to encourage young girls to pursue a career in science. Sheldon talks about Marie Curie who discovered radioactivity. He mentions that the problem was that “her hair fell out, her vomit and stool became filled with blood, and she was poisoned to death by her own discovery”.
The Big Bang Theory, as one of the shows with the biggest audience on television, shows us women with technical careers who are successful in their fields, interacting in an area that is dominated by men (Bernadette Rostenkowski, Amy Farrah Fowler, Leslie Winkle, Emily Sweeney, etc.). Characters who, at the end of the day, become role models and who can get more young women to consider a future in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).