NB: Instead of focusing on a particular book or author, Guest Ranter Emerentia wants to discuss the trope of academic, brainy heroines! Also, feel free to recommending so good academic heroines in the comments.
Emerentia spent her teenage years ignoring the protest “but you’re a girl!” every time she mentioned her interest in physics, and went on to become an astrophysicist anyway. When she doesn’t study black holes, she is passionate about diversity and inclusivity in the science community, and can also frequently be found reading (and nitpicking) romance and science fiction novels.
…
Dear Romance Author Who Writes About Academics,
I have a bone to pick with you. I like your books. They’re generally fun, witty and entertaining. They make me laugh or swoon and sometimes both. They give me an entertaining few hours.
But then you decide to make your heroine a scientist. By scientist, I mean “walking and talking collection of horrible cliches,” and suddenly I want to throw your book at the nearest wall.
Do I need utter realism in my romance novels? No. But I need to be able to empathize with the characters, and they need to be at least somewhat believable. The caricatures of women in academia I see described in your book embody exactly the stereotypes that, as a female physicist, I fight against every day in my real life. When I see the same stereotypes woefully exaggerated and glorified in books, it makes me feel so unbearably angry and sad and helpless that I can’t keep reading.
Representation in books matters. Books have the ability to shape our thinking and our ability to empathize with others. So here are a bunch of tropes that I can’t stand in a heroine who is also an academic. I’m not saying that none of them exist in real life, or that any of them are intrinsically bad, but the fact that all female academics I’ve seen described in romance novels so far basically exhibited the majority of these characteristics (and others) makes me think there’s something seriously wrong with how society views women in science.
1.) The heroine has four PhDs before she’s 25, and is clearly a “prodigy” or “brainiac.”
First of all, really? It’s either “Oh, I’ve never been good at maths, haha” (that pisses me off, too, but that’s a rant for another day) or “I’m so smart I did four PhDs and didn’t think of anything else, ever.” Nothing in between? Nobody who maybe started out struggling in school, but then ended up discovering a love for, say, chemistry, and persevered?
Here’s something that anyone with a PhD will tell you: intelligence alone is not a great predictor of success in academia. The main ingredients of a PhD are: (1) time, (2) perseverance. This is the thing that gets me with the four-PhDs-before-25 scenario: even in the best-case scenario, in science, a PhD will take between three and seven years (YMMV depending on subject). That’s a long time. And a lot of that can’t be cut short, because experiments take time, field work takes time, data analysis takes time, and writing papers takes time. Most of which is out of the PhD student’s control. Do we really have to settle for the lazy “she’s so super smart she could do it with her eyes closed with a snap of her fingers” method of heroine development?
2.) The heroine has “no time for anything outside of research” because she’s such a prodigy and brainiac that it never occurred to her to do anything else, ever.
Are most academics driven and often work long hours? Sure. “Publish or perish” is real. But the academics I know who are interested in a topic long enough to complete a PhD on it are generally also interested in other subjects – otherwise you wouldn’t see me writing rants about scientists in books! And if you make your character all about her research, how does that ever make for anything more than a one-dimensional stick figure? How can you ever actually add depth to a character when her defining characteristic is “does work”? How about also making a heroine an activist, or someone passionate about rock climbing, or running a cooking club for her friends? Literally anything that would show us she has a life outside of work and adds some dimensions to her character.
3.) The heroine is a virgin, because of course she is.
I have no issues with virgins, but somewhere on a blog, I read this comment about a heroine: ‘She has four PhDs, she has no time for anything outside work, let alone sex’. And that just made me sad. See also my point about “interests outside the lab” above, and yes, one of them could (and maybe should) be sex. I know there’s this idea that academics are all brainiacs who don’t think of anything other than science all day and all night, but seriously, we went through college just like everyone else. And not all of us knew at age four that we were going to cure cancer and henceforth did nothing but study microbiology all day and all night. It won’t diminish your heroine’s love for research or dedication to her work if she goes out on a date once in awhile. Many of my female friends in academia tell me they find dating quite frustrating, because apparently many men find women with PhDs somewhat intimidating. How about including that in a book for a change?
4.) The heroine approaches everything in life, including relationships and sexuality, as an experiment.
There actually is a tendency in particular among physicists to think that because they’re good at problem solving in one area, they’re good at solving problems in others (whether they actually solve problems in those areas or create more is a different question). This largely does not apply to daily life. I don’t approach cooking the way I do data analysis, nor do I set up experiments and control groups to figure out how the washing machine works. Honestly, it’s not nature, so doing experiments is stupid if you can just as easily read the manual or recipe or find a YouTube tutorial online. Your heroine, being super clever and all that, should probably know this.
I’m still waiting for the romance novel where the inevitable brainiac scientist virgin heroine has sex, hates it, and goes “Well, N=1 is not a statistically sound sample, and I’ll have to control for confounding variables, too,” so she goes out and has multiple sex orgies with a hundred different people in different positions. Then, of course, she performs multi-variate regression to figure out if she actually likes sex or not.
5.) The heroine is socially awkward.
The real trope here is “I study the universe/mathematical equations/bacteria/X so I don’t understand people.” There certainly are socially awkward scientists. I don’t at all pretend to be the most suave person on the planet. But that doesn’t mean we’re all incapable of finishing a whole sentence without stammering, or generally act like a grown-ass human being in the company of others. I suppose it’s difficult to write an interesting conversation if “intelligent” and “science!” are the heroine’s only characteristics and interests, so it makes sense in that case to describe her as socially awkward. But let’s call it what it is: a cop-out.
6.) The heroine dresses like a nun, has the worst haircut ever, and never wears make-up.
That’s one I have mixed feelings about. Because there’s a kernel of truth in some of that, but not for the reasons authors seem to think. In books, the heroine is usually too busy thinking about her world-changing science, so she doesn’t have time to think about trivial things like clothes or hair or make-up. I guess that makes for a good Cinderella-type story, and that’s a trope that seems to be universally popular (because women are only worth their looks, <insert eye roll here>). I’m sure there are scientists like that, but I also know a scientist who runs a successful fashion blog aside from stuff like, you know, figuring out how black holes work. I have another scientist friend with whom I trade YouTube links for make-up tutorials.
The sad reality is: appearances matter, and they matter all the more for female academics. I’m a physicist. I have to work quite hard to be taken seriously by men at all, so I’m actually very conscious about all of my appearance in a work context, all the time. If I dress too casually, will my students take me seriously? If I wear a skirt at work, will the visiting professor think I’m the admin and ask me to bring him coffee? If I wear this blouse at a conference, will my expertise in the subject wrote my thesis in be challenged even more often than it usually is? I wish I could just not care and wear whatever I want, but I can’t, not if I want to keep having a career. I feel like there are probably interesting stories and topics to explore here, but that sadly never happens, because that wouldn’t fit into the whole make-over narrative.
Perhaps the most frustrating aspect of that trope is that on the one hand, it may seem modern and progressive to write a heroine who is smart and in a stereotypically male profession. But at the same time, any progress is negated by giving her a storyline that literally tells the reader the heroine’s worth depends solely on her looks and ability to attract a man. Yes, because that’s the real reason someone spends their entire twenties in higher education on abysmal pay.
I don’t want this to get any longer than it already is, so I’ll stop adding gripes here. My point is, there are lots of interesting topics and (romantic) conflicts to explore for a heroine who is in academia without making her a walking, taking assembly of tropes. Pop culture hasn’t been very good at this, so you have a real chance here to write something new and different. Please write a book with a heroine I can actually identify with, and who I don’t want to take aside, shake really hard and then spend some serious time mentoring. If you need advice on what academia is like, or what real scientists are like, please talk to us! I for one would be happy to help.
As I said above, representation matters. Representing female academics in this one-dimensional way, as hapless brainiacs with no life experience and no character traits outside of “does research” perpetuates harmful stereotypes, and those of us in academia spend a great deal of time and energy fighting exactly those cliches every day. While I don’t think a romance novel will be the deciding factor in a woman’s decision not to go into academia, it’s yet another piece in the larger puzzle of societal expectations about what professions women choose and how they conduct themselves in these professions. Please allow us to be real human beings in your books, so that for a change, I can enthusiastically recommend them to all my scientist friends!
@SophieK – From the comments above yours:
“I have female co-workers that do wear make up and wear dresses or nicer clothes…”
“I have a friend who has a degree in astrophysics, loves fashion, and used to do illegal (shhh!) street racing in high school. She also is very southern deb…”
“In reality, I’ve met sooooo many female academics who are super interesting… one moonlighted as a fitness instructor at the local gym (taught me to cross-country ski & kayak), most very sociable, supportive, warm, lovely to have a drink and get tipsy with…”
“I live in a university town and I see the reality of sharp, sassy, well-dressed women in the sciences every day. You ladies rock!”
I’m not sure how you got “bashing attractive women” out of that? It looks to me like most people on the thread are AGREEING with you that women can be both smart and attractive. I’m sorry for your personal experiences, but where have you found “illogical, lazy, bitter” women on this thread? Do you mean that the authors are basing their caricatures of women academics on actual scientists they have met?
I love everything about this rant and the comments (except for the Harkness recommendation — I had to throw the first book across the room because the lead character suddenly became an idiot). The thing I hate is the trope of “if a character is smart, they must not understand emotions.” I know that this comes from Spock, but Spock didn’t get emotions because he was an ALIEN, not because he was intelligent.
@Merrian said, “My biggest bugbear with academic representation in Romancelandia is the often complete failure to grasp and apply research ethics.”
I absolutely agree. That was one of the things that killed my enjoyment of Rock Hard, by Olivia Cunning. Her heroine, a sex researcher, received a grant (in a suspiciously short time frame) to study a rock band’s groupies, and there is no way that her approach would have passed an internal review board. I would be incredibly surprised if she even received funding in the first place. Maybe it wouldn’t bother the average reader, but as someone who conducts research on human subjects, I can tell you that we take research compliance extremely seriously.
@SophieK- I have to say I take some umbrage at the tone of your comment. Being pretty is for you (or it should be). Being pretty should not be for other women or for men. Pretty is a construct and highly subjective to the observer. If it is important to you to have clear skin, perfect makeup and big boobs (you brought them up which is the only reason I reference it) then that is awesome! And I hope that those things are important to you because they make you feel good. If they don’t then they shouldn’t matter. For other women, those may not be qualities in themselves that they value, and that’s okay too. My daughter felt prettiest when she had purple hair. My own personal version of pretty changes on a daily basis. But “pretty” is a descriptor I try to avoid when talking about other women. Pretty comes from within and I don’t think it’s bashing anyone to say so.
Sophie, I am honestly dismayed and so confused by your comment. I don’t think Emerentia was stating that intelligence and attractiveness are mutually exclusive, nor am I sure where you found us bashing attractive women?
I’m incredibly confused what it is you are upset about, though I’d like to understand.
Scientist Kelly Hunter’s archaelogist heroine in With This Fling grew up in the field, on digs with family, so the “biggish wig Prof at an improbably young age” thing is addressed and explained.
Love this rant and most of the comments. I ditched grad school after finishing my master’s, in part due to advice from my (female) advisor. It was 1995, my field was history, and there was no job anywhere for that discipline at that time. I could have taught core classes at a community college somewhere (paid by the hour), but in order to teach high school I would have had to go through a whole separate certification process – despite the M.A. – including a year of student teaching, at not much more than minimum wage. (The process for the LAUSD is TWO YEARS.) That’s kind of not something most people can do at the same time they are getting a Ph.D., and the Ph.D. institution is very likely not even in the same state, let alone city, as the available teaching job.
(And yes I consider secondary-school teachers academics.)
Even with a Ph.D. I would have had trouble finding a full-time gig (vs part-time ‘adjunct’) and I would certainly have had to move, probably to somewhere I didn’t want to live, in order to work in academia.
This mobility issue is something else that is chronically neglected in romances featuring academics: you MUST MOVE for your job, 99% of the time. You are not going to be in your cosy hometown where you lived at home throughout college and were supported by your parents throughout grad school. And you are not doing more than one degree simultaneously unless you *are* supported by someone, because many grad students have some kind of campus work and at least a part-time job off campus. Master’s programs are nearly always on the student’s dime. STEM Ph.D. candidates, in my understanding, are likely to have a grant or assistantship or teaching position which covers their living expenses, if not much more.
During my part-time grad school experience I worked full-time, as did most of my peers. Nobody was supporting us but us. So I finished the M.A. at age 29. Had I gone on to a Ph.D., I probably would not have been able to finish it before the age of 35. And that’s HISTORY. No experiments, no grants, no nothing to juggle except a lot of travel if my interest lay in Europe, which it did. And that’s another reason I called it quits: I didn’t have the money for the travel. In fact, I had to scrap my first thesis because all the primary sources for my topic were in England. The reality of money is something all-too-frequently overlooked in stories about academics.
Finally … recently I worked with someone with a science Ph.D. She was in her early-to-mid 30s and married. She did not wear makeup but had an excellent haircut and dressed very stylishly. She was also an athlete and had the great legs to prove it. She was (and is), in short, attractive and romantically successful as well as hella smart.
I agree with others that writers creating an academic heroine need to talk to academic women. If they don’t know any … that’s what the Internet is for. Or, for f**k’s sake, their local college.
@Emerentia — THANK YOU. Could not be feeling this rant any harder.
I keep trying to read books about female academics, for lo, I am one myself, but with the exception of Courtney Milan, I’m always disappointed. Almost never can I identify with any of these stupid heroines — and I suffer from severe social anxiety! I usually end up heartily disliking them.
Dearest Ranter
I feel your pain. I have two words for you: Veronica Speedwell. Please enjoy.
B
Love all of this! Next, can we talk about romance characters in the business world? Sooo much of the same. I often wonder if authors base their ideas of successful businesspeople on TV instead of meeting real life people.
I’ve been following this thread enthusiastically today (and happy-tweet-stormed about it this morning), and now it enjoys the distinction of being the first thing EVER I have posted an internet comment on. Anyways, I love seeing how many readers are weighing in with their own experiences in academia (and their own favorite books) and I don’t have much to add other than to say that for me personally, so many of the common tropes related to academic heroines are so frustrating because there are actually really complex, high-stakes issues for women in academia, many of which are interesting and worth telling a story about, and which have nothing to do with social awkwardness or being a virgin or being a workaholic! As this thread well attests, many academics survive the work of academia — which very easily can be all-consuming — by creating rich, textured lives for themselves, full of interesting collaborations and relationships both within and outside the workplace. Some of us even moonlight as romance novelists…because (gasp!) it is possible to love many, many things at the same time!
I hope this was not the worst-ever first time internet comment. 😉
My favorite professor in undergrad, n historian, would do research and get two books out of it: an academic book and a historical romance novel. I still aspire to be her when I grow up!
Argh, don’t comment and prep for class at the same time, I guess. Please forgive my typos 😀
@Anne Holland: Hold. Up. Are you trying to tell me that all those billionaire CEOs don’t really have time to email people all day long? The devil you say.
This was a great rant. I have similar hair-pulling moments when anyone writes about journalists. A character with two Pulitzers for her work before age 30 is, gonna be, uh, rare. Same with the deeply-sourced 25-year-old investigative reporter. One day, somebody will get it right.
I love this article.
I actively seek stories with strong heroines that are realistically smart. One of my favorites, The Spire by Kate Canterbary, is about a volcanologist. I wasn’t aware that rocks could be so fascinating. This writer definitely knows her stuff when writing her heroines.
Thanks for all of th reccomendations. I’m glad I found this space.
Amen, sister! You’ve pointed out quite a list of the unbelievable plot aspects that seem to occur in novels with female scientists. I wonder if there is a novel out there with realistic descriptions and events of what it can be like to make one’s way in the science/engineering world? I’m hoping things are better in real life than they were when I was an engineering student (I graduated in 1976) but I am suspicious that things haven’t changed all that much.
A terrific recent nonfiction take on things is “The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club” by Eileen Pollack. I often felt like she was writing about me and my female colleagues – though she got much further in her chosen field than I did in mine.
One thing that might be cool to have if it doesn’t exist would be a resource page or forum for authors. There seems to be lots of expertise on various jobs among the readership here (beyond just academia), and perhaps some authors would appreciate a list of contacts they could consult when they’re writing a physicist/biologist/business person/journalist etc and find someone who would willing to chat with them about their job?
@Going Back to Saturn:
Is your screen name a reference to the Stevie Wonder song?
@Commenter no. 2 Apologies for not writing down your screen name::
That Emma Barry series looks interesting. And I like how the book and series titles seem to reference songs.
Yes! I’ve composed similar rants in my head so many times. I stopped at an Ms and I’m not an academic but I’m good friends with several people finishing up PhDs. Oddly enough they all manage to have social lives that include things like traveling and dating. I won’t deny that we tend to be a bit nerdy but we also manage to have interests outside of science.
Thanks for the great rant! This possibly the best comment thread I’ve read on this site. It really resonates as someone who left science, but still has friends who work in the field, and as a child of academics.
Reader me appreciates all the recs while writer me is dreaming up ways to apply the comments to future stories.
YOU ARE MY PEOPLE.
Fellow academic here, though in the humanities – I teach business and tech writing at a teaching-intensive university.
I also want to add some love for Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series. One of the main recurring characters is a history grad student trying desperately to finish her dissertation. I started reading the series when I was in grad school, *also* trying desperately to finish my dissertation. I think the inspiration for the series came from Willig’s own graduate study in history, so it shows a solid understanding of the daily life of an academic. I loved and still love it – the whole series is on my comfort shelf.
Preach it! I am a librarian and I feel the SAME DAMN WAY. My professional title shouldn’t be shorthand for “frumpy, brainiac control freak” OR “buttoned-up on the outside, HOT on the inside.” My trope shares many qualities with the scientist trope. Dear authors, can we work on this, please?
Book smarts is hot. I’ve realized that about four out of five of my WIPs involve someone either working in or working towards academia. My favourite right now is the sexually confident PhD archaeologist. She’s 35, so I think she passes the time-frame test. She likes nothing better than moving as far from her hometown as possible. So of course she’s going to get involved with the dude with two kids and roots.
@Anna C – I’m a nurse (an nurse in academia, no less), so I feel you there.. often shorthand for “brusque, officious peripheral character” or “sex-starved doctor hunter.”
If I wasn’t so damn tired I might try to write some, uh, more realistic nurse romances. (Spoiler alert: nookie in a call room with a self-important doctor is never as fun as it might sound. I speak from experience).
I’m a former research scientist (microbiology PhD). I now work in a university tech transfer office (if you think it’s hard to be taken seriously as a female academic, try being a female in ‘non-academic support services’!). I am that woman who shouts at the TV/magazine articles when they spout pseudo science.
I also write contemporary romance. I write scientist heroines (and heroes) often. I’m glad to see that the one book I set in a microbiology lab (Doctor January), where all the characters are scientists, doesn’t do any of the above, apart from the heroine wearing a geeky t-shirt at one point. I used to get feedback that the sexism the heroine faces is unrealistic. Then Tim Cook and the #distractinglysexy thing happened.
The myth of scientists being socially awkward puzzles me. Most scientists work in labs, which are sociable environments. Sometimes, they are also competitive environments or even negative environments because scientists are people.
I’ve made a note of the book recs (thank you!). I’ve read Courtney Milan and love her sciencey heroines. Nina Harrington writes a good scientist hero. Not a scientist, but Famous by Jenny Holiday has an art prof hero who spends a lot of time obsessing about getting tenure and the depiction of the tenure committee is pretty accurate.
On a tangential note – PhDs in the UK usually take around 3 – 4 years. (I gather 5 – 7 years is the norm in the US and Europe). I have no idea why anyone would do more than one PhD.
I LOVE this post!
I’m a medical doctor who has spent most of her time in academics. I’ve known so many PhDs who are wonderful, funny, accomplished women. Put us all at a cocktail party and, trust me, the MDs are probably more socially awkward than the PhDs.
I wanted to comment on the age of most doctors in romance novels. If you go straight through your education (undergrad, med school, residency), you will likely be 27 or 28 when you actually start your first job. Then, it takes another 2-3 years to actually figure out what you’re doing and develop a practice. I hate reading about super-amazing, successful doctors who are 25 years old.
I am another PhD here, and I am frustratingly close to the stereotype – started school young, socially awkward, don’t wear makeup, very few relationships. But guess what? This has nothing to do with science and everything to do with a difficult childhood and dysfunctional family.
In fact, it was while doing a PhD that I learned to make friends (all these people around who know that networking is important and keep trying to include you), to dress in a way that suited my body shape (thanks new friends!), and to dance (because you have to have a hobby), and also got help for depression and other psychological issues (thanks again to mentors who paid attention). So after completing my degree I fit that stereotype much less than before I started 😉
Thanks for writing this rant, too – it lists all the issues that drive me crazy wherever I pick up a book that tries to feature a scientist heroine.
@Heather T– it’s not that Spock didn’t understand emotions; it’s that Vulcan society found the expression of emotions distasteful and actively repressed them. Anytime he claimed not to understand an emotion was really to tweak Doctor McCoy.
Yes; I’m a Star Trek nerd. Why do you ask?
And I heartily second (third, fourth and fifth) that there need to be better written academic female heroines.
@AnnaC Also a librarian! Thank you! We are a whole bunch of very different people with a huge range of interests, styles, and work environments, please don’t reduce us to tired stereotypes. Although, as I am a special collections librarian, I gave up on Harkness’ Trilogy after two chapters (and as did many of my colleagues across institutions) because so much of her writing about how to do primary source research is incorrect. And she has a PhD. Probably makes for a better story, but still. Also, in what universe are female PhD students in the sciences actually all virginal and only live for research? My science grad student friends were all adorably nerdy and were asked out frequently, and they had the advantage in the male to female ratio, and had lots of friends and weren’t some wallflower, terrified of men. And these authors seem to forget that many, many people meet their partners online in a variety of ways, including academics. And don’t get me started on conference hookups…
I love this rant and could give and would love to read more rants in this style (addressing common problems in romance in their portrayal of women and/or issues).
A recent article one of my friends posted was about the connection between academia and money. School costs a lot and for the heroine to have financed her education by 25, she have to be winning major scholarships or independently wealthy or both. It’s possible that one or both are true, but most academics I know have taken time off to save up for school. If you’re working to save up, it may take a while to earn enough for the program you want. We need to become more aware of how class has impact on life choices.
The high price of academics may also explain why the heroine is wearing dowdy clothes and not wearing a lot of make-up, she may already have enough debt! She may need to scrimp for that PHD. She may not be able to afford more than the basics of life.
Of course the real reason the heroine is 25 and has Phd (one at 25 is impressive!) is because no matter how smart she is, her smartness isn’t as important as her ability to bear children. Her brain isn’t as important as her uterus!
I always liked Tara Lain’s m/m/f Genetic Attraction series, involving genetic researcher Dr. Emmaline Silvay, her besotted research assistant Jake, and his supermodel boyfriend Roan. (Of course, my favorite in the series is actually DECEPTIVE ATTRACTION, featuring Em’s cousin Angel, since it has a really thoughtful plotline about the gender spectrum, along with some very hot sexytimes in multiple permutations.
@EmilyA- your comment about heroines that are pursuing higher education maybe not being able to afford lots of makeup or high fashion immediately made me think of A Bollywood Affair by Somali Dev. As I recall Mili is pursuing a graduate degree, workig as a research assistant and in a restaurant job and has only the t-shirts and jeans she bought from a market in India because she’s living on a shoestring. She was also one of the most well-rounded and fully realized heroines I’ve read.
@Rhoda Baxter: Yay. That sounds amazing. I’m looking up your books right now. 🙂
And yeah, people often say “surely it’s not that bad”, but sexism in academia is alive and well, and I don’t know a single female scientist who can’t tell stories.
Yes! Testify! In most cases it’s so clear that the writer is falling back on the stereotypes/tropes as a way to create some conflict.
May I present some conflicts and romances for academic and scientific heroines based on what academic life is really like?
She’s socially isolated…not because she doesn’t have social skills but because she’s had to move three times in four years as an adjunct. Now she has her dream academic position, tenure track even, but it’s far away from all her family and friends, and she’s not sure she WANTS to stick it out. Potential romance: Bring on the rugged rural types – the ranger, ranch owner, retired Marine/SEAL/SAS come back to their hometown.
Thanks to her field and speciality, she’s surrounded by men. All the time. Every event. Every class. As a result she’s so burned out on dealing with the sexism and gender dynamics that she shuts people out and relies on a small circle of friends and family. Potential romance: Academic rival meets her at a conference and has ‘oh no she’s hot’ moment. Tech billionaire sees her TED talk and is swept away. Friend from childhood runs into her over holiday visit home and is smitten. All of them have to put in the hard yards to show her (and her Very Important Friends/Family) they’re really sincere.
The beautiful heritage location, with its stunning fortress/castle/historic house, has been in one family for generations. The new heir has to deal with both the neglected holding and with the researcher who’s begging to study the superbly rare birds/geological formations/fossils/archaeological dig on the land. Oh, and that researcher? She’s going to need to live there for a while… Potential romance: All those aristocrats romance readers love – dukes, earls, marchionesses, Scottish lairds, land barons, shieks, maharajas. Go ahead and make it a historical, women were paleontology pioneers in the UK.
She got super lucky and spent a season doing research in Antarctica. And while she was there, she had a fling with a ludicrously hot scientist/mechanic/military expert. Now she’s back in the US and she’s written it off as a pleasant interlude because, Antarctica – these things happen – they’d be out of her league away from there. Potential romance: Ludicrously Hot fell wildly in love, can’t forget her, and is going to leave the Ice to win her back.
This is something that I started to notice when I was doing my MS. The thing that really got me was that there were characters on both Bones and Criminal Minds that were multi-degreed at ages younger than me. On Criminal Minds, FBI Agent Dr. Spencer Reed was 24 and had several degrees and yet he was never shown as having skipped any grades. On Bones, Sweets was 23 with a Ph.D. in Psychology and a career as a psychologist/profiler with the FBI. As I was 23 and in my first year of graduate study that really stood out for me. Then, there was Bones, herself, who was supposedly involved in excavating Ground Zero in 2001, despite only being 25 (not shown, but mentioned in a 9/11 themed episode in season 8). I seriously doubt she would have gotten her Ph.D. at that age unless it was the only thing she did–and we know that wasn’t completely true.
I can not tell you how desperately I want to read about about the scientist who has ALL THE ORGIES, crunches a bunch of data, then computes and goes “you know, I’m not really into it.” And goes off with a book (maybe about science, maybe about flugelhorn playing) into the wild blue yonder that is life.
I would no joke read the shit out of that book and recommend it to all my friends. Please someone, make my dream come true. Mr Tingle, if you’re reading this site, do it for us! Please!!
@Sadie – Oooh, can I play? Further potential academic romances:
She’s a newly minted PhD who has earned a dream post-doc at a super-prestigious institution, far from her home (or in a foreign country – lots of scope for great settings). She can’t put down roots because this is only a one year commitment (or possibly two). She’s working with a brilliant colleague who is currently up for tenure at dream institution and is therefore settling down at the institution she knows she has to leave. Potential romance: Running a close second to the Latin proposal at the end of Gaudy Night would have to be “I told them I’d only take the job if they did a partner hire.” Swoon. Since this is fantasy that actually works. NB that the genders can be easily reversed here as well.
Sparks fly at a conference where the heroine is giving a paper. (Lots of potential for meet cute here, as well as plenty of snappy argument.) The heroine dismisses the hook-up as a quick fling since the hero lives at the other end of the country. Potential romance: Unbeknownst to her, the hero has actually accepted a job at a nearby institution…
I third the idea that some of the awesome STEM PhDs on these boards should form a writing critique group. It occurs to me that the PhDs in the humanities (literature, languages, and history) tend to write historical romance about the periods they study (because that’s where you put all the fun research you couldn’t use in the formal paper and the hypotheses you can’t prove but like). So those who DO write about contemporary academia tend to be lacking first-hand experience. Get on that, STEM people! Outlining fiction isn’t that different from outlining any type of longer writing, and we’ll all be cheering you on.
@MD: I just want to say that I’m so happy you found friends and go dancing and got help and had good mentors. Way to go — I’m cheering you on!
Excellent rant and 100% on point. Lucky for me for the most part I’ve had pretty good work experiences as a female scientist and most of the scientists and engineers I work with directly are women, which is pretty cool. But I have noticed the same issues in romance novels and would love to see some more strong female characters. As far as recommendations go I’ll echo the above mention of A Discovery of Witches and add Lady of Devices by Shelley Adina -excellent female engineer as the heroine.