I think the topic of The Exceptions is really interesting but this book is more in depth/detailed than I am ready to take in right now. I decided to DNF at 40%. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the free review ebook.

Being a woman in STEM as a female data scientist I felt like I couldn’t not read this book. It seemed like it was my duty. And while I expected to find this extremely relatable and hopefully inspiring, I did not expect it to drag on forever.

This book is mostly about the life of Nancy Hopkins, a scientist at MIT, culminating with MIT’s admittance of discrimination against their female scientists. As I mentioned, I expected to personally relate to this story and hoped to be inspired with how other women overcame discrimination. But this story did not live up to what I hoped it to be.

For one, this story was very, very long. For some reason it felt painstaking to make it through each page. I think it was because of the level of detail. So. Much. Detail. There was so much that was unnecessary to the point of this story and it took forever to move forward. And unfortunately, the end of the story was a huge let down. It ended with the article being published with barely any follow up on how it impacted the women’s lives or if it altered the lives and careers of women today. I just was very disappointed with the content of this book.

I was definitely shocked by some aspects of this book. To imagine a time when women could not be hired because men did not think they were intelligent or capable is jarring, and I’m reassured with how far things have come since then. But at the same time, it was disheartening how much seemed just as relevant today. The notion that women will end up quitting their careers to care for their families and therefore cannot be taken seriously as candidates is still very much applicable today. I might be naive to hope this book would offer some insight to a solution to this, but it was disappointing when I realized Hopkins did not end up becoming a mother, and therefore did not have to face this challenge herself. I was hoping to gather advice for overcoming this but all I seemed to get out of it was that balance does not exist if you want to do actual science. The few women who did raise families were basically unicorns who supposedly came to work days after giving birth - something I could not even fathom doing.

I really wanted to like this book because of what I believe it wanted to stand for, but it really let me down in terms of what it achieved and also in holding my interest. It was far too detailed to keep me intrigued and did not cover the points that I hoped it would.

Thank you to NetGalley and Scribner for an ARC of this book.

Excellent book. I requested it for background reading for a review we were planning on BookBrowse. Our reviewer gave it 5-stars: https://www.bookbrowse.com/mag/reviews/index.cfm/ref/vf294336/the-exceptions#reviews
And I agree. I will be continuing to talk up the book at every opportunity.

As a woman in STEM, I was immediately drawn to this non-fiction book and excited when I received a copy. Overall, I think this is a great recounting of Nancy Hopkins fight for women at MIT. I hadn't heard of this particular story, so it was great to learn more about Hopkins and her contributions to women's rights in the workplace.

I listened to this book on audio and enjoyed the narration. I think it helped me stayed engaged in the book, as there were some parts that felt a bit long or less interesting than others. However, this was an overall great read, especially during Women's History Month!!

Thank you Scribner Books for the gifted e-book!

"The Exceptions" lacked focus. The topic is fascinating and one that should be discussed and written about, and the author obviously did extensive research. However, each chapter contained lengthy tangents about other people and places besides Nancy, but the subtitle and continuous return to her seemed to point towards the book being about Nancy. Some of the tangents are frivolous and should have been cut. One example is the section about Barbara McClintok that goes on for several pages and includes details about the cars she drove and fashion choices. It made sense to include how the other scientists talked about her to show the sexism, but why did the author of this book do the exact same thing? I found it difficult to get through because it didn't feel cohesive, and I found it to a slog.

The Exceptions is a powerful recounting of the uphill battle women have had to face in being treated equally, specifically in higher education at some of the most prestigious universities in the country. Zernike does a fantastic job of tracing Nancy Hopkins’ career and that of several of her female peers over the decades as they fought, over and over and over again to be respected for their dedication and contributions in their fields.

The story is incredibly compelling and deeply personal-which means that when it was speaking to the barriers these women faced, it made me deeply angry. How do you decide when you love something so much that you’re willing to put up with things that you shouldn’t have to? How deeply do you have to care about something that it’s worth the stress, anxiety, and disrespect you’re likely to face your entire career? How good do you have to be in your field, how many hours do you have to put in to study and work, just to be tolerated-not respected or even venerated?

The culmination of this novel is in 1999, when Nancy when public with the battle she and other women faced at MIT. It might have been a step in the right direction, but it was still only a step in the right direction. This was two years before I started at college. I’d been on computers since I was a child; I had a grandfather who worked for IBM. I loved computers, and loved my programming classes in high school. I went into college as a computer science major. It only took one semester for me to figure out that my love for computers and programming was not enough for me to put up with the micro aggressions and discrimination I experienced-and I certainly wasn’t willing to do it for the rest of my life. Nancy’s passion for various fields in genetics was clearly more than mine in a different STEM field, and possibly she stuck around longer because she didn’t feel outright mistreated from the very beginning. By the time she realized there was a serious problem and it wasn’t just her, she was decades into her career.

The question always gets asked about why women grow disinterested in STEM fields. The argument is made that it’s difficult to have more equal representation if more women and minorities don’t pursue those fields. Why is there a drop off between undergraduates with STEM degrees and graduates and post docs pursuing careers in the industry. It’s because there is STILL a problem with the way non-white individuals are treated when they express interest in these areas.

This book mainly takes place in the latter half of the twentieth century, but these issues are still a problem today-making this an incredibly important topic. I envy and cheer the women that had cheerleaders that were both women and men that helped them advance in STEM fields. I appreciate the fact that even though Zernike focuses primarily on Nancy and other women in this book, that she also addresses men that were supportive, not just detrimental. It’s a reminder that it takes people that have the power having the willingness to relinquish some of it to elevate others deserving of their dues. THAT is how the world becomes a better place.

As a disclaimer (not a spoiler), the book follows Nancy’s career, which is in biology and more specifically in various disciplines of genetics. It helps to have at least a basic understanding of the fundamentals of genetics to better understand the science being done in the book, but certainly won’t stop anyone from understanding Nancy’s uphill battle for respect, inclusion and equality. There were times where I wished that she had been more aggressive in fighting for her rights than she was, instead of pursuing incremental change, but I also, personally, recognize the difficulty in doing so after my own experience. This book is not only a great read, but a necessary one. A complimentary copy of this book was provided by the publisher. All thoughts and opinions are my own.