Okay, one quote, and then you absolutely have to read the whole thing.Β
Still, the virtue of some rules in Aschwandenβs test is difficult to see at first. Take the rule of βno firsts.β In the comments section below her post for Last Word on Nothing, Finkbeiner explained that no sooner had she taken the vow to ignore gender, than she caught herself writing that the astronomer she was profiling was the first to win a certain award. After a reader urged her to stick to her pledge, she removed it.
βThe fact that sheβs the first woman to do that says a lot more about the prize-giving committee than it does about her,β Finkbeiner explained in our interview. βSo if I were going to put that into a story, it would be a story about prejudice in that prize committee.β
It blew my mind, because sheβs right. The fact that thereβs some many firsts left is the result of bias in the committees NOT IN THE WORK WOMEN DO