She's Such a Geek! Women Write About Science, Technology, and Other Nerdy Stuff

This anthology, edited by two of the editors of sf blog io9, is a collection of personal essays by a number of "geeky" women. Many of the essays are autobiographical, chronicling the writers' experiences over their years in whatever geeky field they decided to pursue-- usually the hard sciences. Almost all of them discuss the difficulty of balancing a career like this with "feminine" concerns such as childcare or sex or just plain-old gender discrimination. Many of them are also funny, which is a nice plus. Particular favorites of mine included "Really Good for a Girl" by Kory Wells, about a computer programmer whose mom never lets her be second best; "Dial-up Desire" by Jami Schoenewies, about a girl who runs her own BBS to meet boys; show more "Suzy the Computer vs. Dr. Sexy" by Suzanne E. Franks, which introduces the idea of the Nerdonna/Whore complex; Roopa Ramamoorthi, about an Indian molecular biologist who comes to America and ends up in an arranged marriage; and "Why BMX XXX Sucks" by Mara Poulsen, about a female game programmer.

The problem with the book is that the essays get repetitive. Each woman overcoming adversity, succeeding in her field,* and reconciling her geek identity with her female identity gets old after a while. Despite a claim in the introduction that the book "looks forward to a day when women will... write science fiction epics," there's no sf fans represented in the book at all-- despite that surely being one of the largest areas of female geekdom. (I know from going to conventions that female Stargate fans exist in very large numbers!) The closest we get is an (interesting) essay by Devin Kalile Grayson about being the first woman to write a Batman ongoing and a (disappointingly unperceptive) depiction of why Michelle Villanueva likes pretending to be Neville Longbottom on GreatestJournal. I'd have liked to seen more tales of fandom, as well as more women who were geeky in ways outside of the hard sciences: I know plenty of geeky literary women, for example!

Overall, though, it's a good collection, and there certainly are some great essays in it. There's only one outright bad one ("I am Wonk, Hear Me Analyze" by Charlie Anders), a couple dull or strange ones, and many great ones. It's well worth reading for anyone interested in the issue of women in science.

* Actually, there are a few who outright fail, and many others don't quite end up where they thought they would, but overall there's definitely a feeling of triumph to the collection. show less

At first I was wary of this book, I think because I have VERY HIGH expectations for a book that deals to two huge aspects of my being: femaleness and geekdom. It did a pretty good job. Not all of the essays were that great, but most were, and lots of them had me remembering long-repressed moments of my many years of being treated differently as a female who loves math, science, engineering and technology. Every day I experience gender-bias, whether or not I am aware of it, and this book made me feel a lot less alone.

Calling all you geek girls out there: this one's for you. It's a collection of essays by some staggeringly accomplished women about growing up with an interest and ability in such traditionally male-oriented areas as math, computers, technology, and gaming. You'll definitely find something here that strikes a chord.