Picture a Scientist

Both a call to action and an appreciation of those working on the front lines of the battle against sexism and racism in the sciences, Picture a Scientist chronicles the experiences of several generations of women. Despite significant progress in addressing inequitable working conditions and sexual harassment thanks to the efforts of women like Dr. Nancy Hopkins and her colleagues at MIT, who worked to provide irrefutable evidence of discrimination, recent studies have shown that the problems of bias are much deeper and more pervasive than was previously understood. Demonstrating the toll that discrimination and harassment take on women in the field, the film asks what is lost to scientific progress when the contributions of half the population are discouraged.