This post was sponsored by Cindy Lee Neighbors, MD’s Too Much and includes affiliate links, which means we make a small commission on any sales. All opinions are my own. Partnerships like these help us to pay our staff and to keep feminist media independent!
I wasn’t sure what to expect when I picked up Too Much by Cindy Lee Neighbors, MD. The memoir is billed as being about her time “trapped in a system that values hierarchy, patriarchy, and conformity over compassion and care.” And it does start out that way. After Neighbors jumps at the opportunity to gain a free medical school education by joining the military, she finds herself in a surgical residency where she feels targeted by everyone around her, facing allegations that she is rude, condescending, and aggressive. She soon becomes unsure if she will ever graduate.
But while this memoir starts out as a more straightforward glimpse into what life can be like for a woman working in a male-dominated field, it eventually turns darker. Faced with what she sees as gender discrimination at work, Neighbors grapples with her shaky mental health, and with substance abuse issues. Soon, she is in a downward spiral, engaging in risky behaviors that only serve to justify her colleagues’ treatment of her.
Then again, how is one to react in such an environment? Books abound about how women might thrive in male-dominated fields, but many of them don’t address the systemic issues that exist in such high-pressure environments… particularly the various forms of sexism women endure. In addition to sexual harrassment, women report that they are often treated as less competent than their male counterparts, experience repeated small slights because of their gender, and receive less support from their higher-ups. Women in these male-dominated fields also report feeling isolated at work, and share instances where they have been passed over for opportunities like important assignments and promotions.
Some women persevere, losing a part of themselves in the process. Some women manage, somehow, to thrive. Others crumple under the pressure… a pressure they never should have been subjected to.
For more insight into what it’s like to be a woman working in a male-dominated field, check out some of the books below.
Nonfiction Books About Working in a Male-Dominated Field
Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly
I’m pretty sure most of you know about this one, especially as it was the basis for an Academy Award-nominated film starring big names like Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monae, Kirsten Dunst, and Kevin Costner. This biography is about a group of Black, female mathematicians at NASA whose work allowed rockets to successfully launch into space. Of course, these highly intelligent and talented women had spent quite some time being overlooked, teaching public school math in the South’s public schools. But when there were labor shortages during World War II, these ladies—Hidden Figures, if you will—stepped up in a big way, finally receiving the recognition they deserved. Of course, even once they gained entry to Langley Memorial Aeronautical Laboratory, things weren’t easy, not least because Virginia’s Jim Crow laws required them to be segregated from their white counterparts. Despite this, they were integral in the United States’ victory over the Soviet Union in the Cold War, and in the space race.
A Lab of One’s One by Rita Colwell, Ph.D.
Moving on to memoir, in A Lab of One’s Own, scientist Rita Colwell faced roadblocks at every turn, even being told—when she applied for a graduate fellowship in bacteriology—that “we don’t waste fellowships on women.” Colwell went on to change her field of study six times before earning her Ph.D., mostly due to a lack of support from her male superiors. Colwell eventually came to see this circuitous route to her degree as a boon, as it allowed her to approach her work in a more interdisciplinary way. She went on to head a team that helped to uncover the source of anthrax used in the 2001 letter attacks, discover how cholera survives between epidemics, become the head of the National Science Foundation, and much, much more.
Good for a Girl by Lauren Fleshman
Sam already did a longer review of this one, but I wanted to mention Good for a Girl because of how it explores the ways in which professional sports and athletics regularly fail women and girls. Fleshman—who is an elite distance runner—digs into why girls often drop out of sports once they hit puberty, why female collegiate athletes routinely fall victim to injury, and why professional, competitive sports are rife with eating disorders, mental health struggles, ageism, and more. For more about women and running, you should for sure read Sam’s post on marathon running and inclusivity.
Novels About Working in a Male-Dominated Field
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I usually think of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow as a ’90s-tastic topic about nerd-dom and complicated friendship. But then I remember that this book also takes place in the industry that brought us Gamergate, a disgusting, misogynistic, online harassment campaign against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. So of course Zevin’s novel—about two friends who become creative partners in the world of video game design—also touches upon sexism in the gaming industry, particularly through the lens of the main female protagonist, a video game designer trying to navigate a largely male-dominated field, facing sexist challenges to her credibility at every turn. Read more about this book in Sam’s extended review.
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus
This novel received an extra wave of buzz in 2023 thanks to its adaptation for Apple TV, but the book itself came out in 2022, at which point it quickly became a book club staple. I was skeptical when a friend insisted I read Lessons in Chemistry, and was then immediately put off by an upsetting scene early on in the book depicting a sexual assault. But when I pushed past it, I found myself enchanted by this quirky story of a chemist battling sexism who ends up hosting a cooking show and inspiring a revolution. In fact, in ended up being one of my favorite reads that year. Listen to a chat between Renee and Garmus here.
The Startup Wife by Tahmima Anam
In The Startup Wife, a brilliant coder and a spiritual seeker fall in love, get married, and then go into business together, developing a social media app that creates meaningful rituals for its users. Can their marriage survive what comes next? This book is a delicious skewering of startup culture and of the patriarchy, and an exploration of the things we build our lives around and the things upon which we impart meaning. I include it here because of how the female coder eventually gets crowded out of her own dang project because of the cult of personality built up around her charismatic husband.
Impostor Syndrome by Kathy Wang
Finally, in Impostor Syndrome, two women find themselves fighting two separate patriarchal systems: the tech industry and the Russian government. In short, a woman stuck in the lower echelons of a tech company starts to suspect that her coworker is abusing a loophole in her company’s privacy settings. She’s not wrong; it turns out her coworker is a Russian spy. But her employers don’t respect her and, as for the spy, her employers are starting to ask for more than she feels comfortable giving. How will it all shake out in the end?? (I don’t know, because this one is still on my TBR!)
What’s the takeaway from this reading list? We have a long way to go in terms of gender equity in the workplace, in terms pay, diverse leadership, flexible work arrangements, mentorship, and more. And while some women persevere, others—like Neighbors—find themselves broken, even if only temporarily. And while I do feel pessimistic about making much headway during our current administration, I know that to succumb to those feelings is to concede.
How have your workplaces put systems in place that create more gender equity?
I’d love to continue the conversation in the Feminist Book Club community.
