TV’s 14 most fascinating women in STEM
Let's hear it for these brilliant and inspiring scientists, docs, engineers, and coders, from Arrow's Felicity to The X-Files' Scully
TV Features Angel & Co.
Brie Larson stars in the upcoming Apple TV+ series Lessons In Chemistry as Elizabeth Zott, a brilliant chemist held back by the gender politics of mid-century America. Prevented from reaching her true potential as a scientist, she finds success instead as the host of a television cooking show. Elizabeth follows a proud tradition of women TV characters with exceptional skills in the fields of science, technology, engineering, or math, known collectively as STEM.
As it happens, the show’s premiere on October 13 comes (intentionally or not) just a few days after the annual celebration of Ada Lovelace Day. The international event, named for the Victorian mathematician credited with creating the first computer algorithm, honors the contributions of real-life women in science with the goal of inspiring and encouraging more of them to pursue STEM careers. We think fictional characters can be just as inspirational as real ones (see: the Scully Effect), so in that spirit, here in chronological order are our favorite television scientists, criminologists, tinkerers, hackers, and tech heroes, who also happen to be fascinating women.
42 Comments
No Chloe O’Brien? Dammit!
some really funny character names in here. STEM women can’t just be Sarah or Ashley I guess
Dana.
I see way too much of myself (warts and all, so to speak) in H&CF’s Cameron. It’s what helped make her character so easy for me to love while also so easy for me to criticize.It is fascinating how much that show was built around the male characters, but it became worth watching far more for Donna and Cameron.
Yeah that pivot away from the male characters at the end of season one and even harder in season two made the show sooo much better.
Yeah, but that weakened it even more so than it was in terms of being realistic. H&CF was kind of initially meant to be a sort of Mad Men series but in the 1980s — a series that somewhat debunked a much-nostalagized decade by showing how it wasn’t that great for a lot of people. And focusing on how women in tech in the 1980s were rare, ostracized and faced a glass ceiling would be part of an honest depiction of the era. Having them run the show and everyone acting as if that was normal minimizes the struggle that women had (and still have) in tech.
Sierra Online, a PC game company, was founded by a husband & wife team.
I know. I was around.at the time But 1) it was husband and wife (and the husband was CEO and she was just a game developer) 2) It was incredibly rare. Basically Roberta Williams of Sierra and Carol Shaw of Activision (also game designer, not head of company) were the only high profile women in the entire computer/console gaming field in the 1980s. So the idea that a company like Mutiny led by two women just wasn’t what was happening at the time. I was never a huge fan of the series, but I did like the early Joe vs Gordon dynamic because that at least was realistic. The 1980s had that type of dynamic — slick charismatic assholes like Adam Osborne and Steve Jobs got success by exploiting nerdy less charismatic engineers like Lee Felsenstein and Steve Wozniak who actually understood the technology and not just buzzwords.
Surely Star Trek should be represented here. Lt. Uhura may have been the Enterprise’s comms officer, but there was more to her than just saying “hailing frequencies open.” I remember one episode where she had to get behind a panel and rewire her console.Throw in Dr. Beverly Crusher, Counselor Troi, Capt. Janeway… didn’t Voyager have a female chief engineer? Wasn’t that the half-Klingon/half-human woman’s job?
I’m not sure I’d count Troi as being “in STEM,” but I can see B’Elanna Torres certainly. And she was fascinating. (Dr. Crusher was not fascinating, at least I didn’t find her so.) Uhura may have had to rewire her console one time but her specialty was languages, not engineering.I guess I could technically count Troi since I believe she had studied psychology which is a science if you’ve engaged in research etc. I just never really got STEM from her. Maybe because I found her a bit pointless anyway. I don’ think she’s a great representation for women in STEM.
Troi wore a blue uniform, so that = science.I think anyone in Starfleet probably got an education with a strong STEM core, but Uhura’s Starfleet career may not have been as STEM focused. But as far as I’m concerned, if you work in outer space, that’s a STEM career.
She wore a blue uniform when she finally did wear a uniform, but if we’re talking about female characters who represented STEM, just wearing a blue uniform isn’t that, to me. She didn’t actually do or participate in STEM activities or duties on a regular basis. When you’re talking to girls about STEM, you don’t say “and one day you can work on a science and research vessel and…feel things.” I agree with you that everyone in Starfleet must have gotten basic education in the technology on the ship that was relevant to them. Uhura could repair her station—that doesn’t mean she is an engineer. I can do basic fixes on my computer but it doesn’t mean I’m a Woman In Computer Science any more than being able to change a tire would make me an auto mechanic.I’ll 100% allow that working in Starfleet by definition is a sciency career, but I also think anything “outer space” feels sciency to us in 2023, but I think it’s more normal in the time period represented and not automatically “you must be a scientist to be in this job.” Like Worf when he was security chief. That’s not “In STEM” even though it happens in outer space. He’s a soldier who works in outer space, you know?
I mean, describing what Troi does as “feeling things in space” isn’t entirely unfair given her typical role in episodes, but it’s clear she at least has a psychology degree. I’m pretty sure there’s an episode or two where she’s returning to the ship after having presented a paper at a conference or some such. Crusher and Pulaski fill much more traditional STEM roles, though.Speaking of Worf/security, I always thought it was weird how security and engineering are lumped together in “operations” and both wear gold uniforms. “Fixing the ship” and “ineffectually shooting lasers at Romulan spies” seem like pretty different skillsets.
Yeah I said she had studied psychology (in an earlier comment that probably got buried) so that’s true, but yeah that’s not something that belongs on this list. 1) She’s not fascinating, and 2) she’s not presented as a Woman Doing Science. On the whole I think a ship psychologist could be a traditional STEM role…just not Troi.. The thing is I can sort of applaud the writers for this wobbly attempt to give feelings an equal role to hard science. It just didn’t make it all the way there because a lot of Troi’s character was a bit ridiculous.Hey the security team could aim accurately when it served the plot! lol
Ah, somehow missed the second paragraph of your initial comment! Yeah, the show made a couple of half-hearted stabs at giving Troi a professional life, but for the most part it was just “I sense the angry alien is angry.”
“I’m sensing a strong sense of sorrow, Captain! *tears*”
Today, sure. But in Star Trek it is kind of like saying “if you work on an airliner you have a STEM career”. It’s all common and understood technology then.
Not ST but Naomi Nagata on The Expanse is definitely STEM
and a brilliantly played one at that. Good call…
Esp Uhura as she’s portrayed now on SNW. Arguably all the women on SNW could fit into this category. Maybe Una and Reyes are iffy, but Una knows engineering, and Ortegas knows… piloting (?) She assertively flies the ship, anyway. Oh and La’an is all muscle. But the show bends over backwards to make sure everyone knows that to get assigned to the Enterprise, you basically have to have a double doctorate in your field.
If being cited as a girlhood inspiration by at least one (I think it was more than one but would have to do some research to confirm that) actual woman astronaut doesn’t make Uhura a shoo-in for this list, I don’t know what would.(Inspiration and representation for black kids, too — as no less than Martin Luther King, Jr. pointed out to Nichelle Nichols when she was thinking about leaving the show after the first season.)When assessing how large such things loomed, let’s not forget that TOS originally aired in the time period that was the setting of “Mad Men” and in real life saw fire hoses and German shepherds used on people of color who dared claim their rights. As for whether Uhura was actually in STEM: aside from occasionally fixing this and that (the T in STEM, no?), if I’m not mistaken we know from dialogue, action, and backstory that seems considered canon that she was an Academy graduate, trained in linguistics (a science), occasionally stood in as navigation or even science officer on the bridge, and ultimately got her own command. I’ll buy it.
Even taking out doctors and counselors, Janeway and Torres from Voyager count, Jadzia Dax from DS9, and Mariner and Tendi from Lower Decks have the STEM thing in spades.
When I was in law school the FBI came to recruit. I wasn’t that interested in joining law enforcement, but because of Dana Scully I definitely paused to consider it.
Wouldn’t hurt to mention the name of the actress of your most recent entry, I think? (Rebecca Ferguson). Role without actress doesn’t exist.
If you don’t love Astrid, you don’t have a heart.
Excellent choice!
I’ll go the medical examiner route. Tamara Tunie and Elizabeth Rodgers on Law & Order, and Linda Fiorentino in Men in Black. Rowr.ETA: Expanding on MiB and Sci-Fi, I’d add Amy Adams in Arrival and Jodie Foster in Contact.
Yep, among other things I’d argue Ellie is the most accurate representation of a grad student ever portrayed and probably should top the overall list.
Plus Jordan Cavanaugh!
And as long as we’re doing women forensic scientists acting like police detectives, there have been at least a couple like her, Sam Ryan (Amanda Burton) and then Nikki Alexander (Emilia Fox), ‘crost the pond on Silent Witness… Speaking of long-running shows and forensics: although she’s a plug-in to the formula rather than the main focus of the show, Melinda Warner (Tamara Tunie) had her hands in 226 episodes and a similar number of decedents on Law & Order: SVU across more than 20 years.
I wish to submit Cassandra Cillian of The Librarians. The adorable, little nerd who often solved her problems through math and physics. There was even a STEM episode that centered on her.
Doctor Cameron (Jennifer Morrison) in House.
Also the hospital adminstrator (Lisa Edelstein) and 13 (Olivia Wilde).
That show had a fair number of women; I might be forgetting a couple.
This is a strange list, not the least because of the cited logic of the deliberate choice to drop Margo in favor of Aleida. The former showed a pretty reasonable representation of what it took to be a woman in both STEM and management in the 70s, 80s, and even 90s; the other has magical plot armor that prevented her own epically bad life choices from getting in the way of her ascendancy.
And I would put Samantha Carter over most of those in here if only because Amanda Tapping went a step beyond probably anyone else on this list in routinely sitting down with physicists and astrophysicists to have some idea of what her character was saying – partially so she could play the part better and partially because she was genuinely interested in the theory. That counts for a lot.
Totally agree about Margo. Her initial “bad” decision was intended to save lives; that led to her fatal involvement with the Russians. She’s what’s known as a “complex character,” which is a good thing, and I cannot wait to see what she does in the new season.
Yay, justice for Astrid! Or Aphid… or Asscam or whatever her name is.That got me thinking about Olivia, but she was definitely more of a cop.But Anna Torv in “Mindhunter” … now there we go. Prof Wendy Carr. (Or was she Dr. Wendy Carr?) Rewatch time!
Root instead of Fred, surely? And Caitlin?! Come on!
Do any of them show their tits though?
Samantha Carter of Stargate-SG-1- scientist and soldier.
Loved Fred.
You included NCIS (of double-keyboard-typing fame) but left off Root from Person of Interest? Not cool, man.
Not a huge part, but Leslie Winkle, Sara Gilbert’s part in the Big Bang Theory. She’s easily as technically smart as the other guys on the show (or smarter) but with more confidence and social skills. She’s also the only one who can handle Sheldon.