Women in STEM Author Interview: Ruth Ann Murphy
Posted on: May 6, 2022
What inspires you about the STEM field?
Its capacity to make life better for all of us. This is the “Baconian Dream” fulfilled. Sir Francis Bacon, who lived around 1600, postulated that one day science would endow humans with wonderful new inventions to make life easier. Not only is the STEM field able to raise our quality of living, the STEM field is exciting, interesting, and fun to explore.
What was your motivating factor to explore the STEM field?
(1) Chemistry (STEM) is interesting!
(2) Chemistry is challenging! I love challenges and Chemistry is definitely challenging.
(3) Chemistry is the backbone of medicine – diseases start at the molecular level before they manifest themselves with symptoms - and I thought a deep knowledge of Chemistry would help me take better care of myself. Over the years, this has translated into my being able to converse more effectively with my family’s healthcare providers.
(4) I thought it would be wonderful to be able to predict what products form when substances are combined.
(5) Watching precipitates form is awesome; the combination of two clear liquids yielding a curdy, white silver chloride precipitate is amazing!
How many women do you currently collaborate with the in STEM field?
Four other Chemistry faculty members and various Biology faculty members.
How can women support one another in the STEM field?
Be willing to help and mentor others in the field.
Avoid criticizing one another publicly or behind their back. If there is a serious concern, it should be dealt with privately whenever possible. Keep the attitude that if someone is annoying you, “they’re probably doing the best that they can.”
What kind of content do you think will help women in STEM?
(1) Greater clarification of certain terms is needed.
(a) When I was in graduate school, we heard about “the rigid rotor” in Physical Chemistry. Of course this was a mystery to me because I had no idea what a rotor was and was embarrassed to ask. (For some reason it never occurred to me to look in a dictionary.)
(b) Pistons are often discussed in STEM courses, but again, many of my women students don’t know what pistons look like or how they work.
(2) Colors are energizing to me; when I have a huge stack of grading, it helps to have various colors of ink to grade with. Similarly, teaching materials with some level of color would attract more women to the subject or at least help them feel more comfortable with the content.
(3) Some of my research students have opted for projects involving makeup. Some text material along these lines, e.g., discussing the drying effects on the skin of rubbing alcohol because it hydrogen bonds with water, or the way skin creams which are non-polar can seal in moisture in the skin, preventing drying effects, could help interest women in STEM. Hmm, I’m getting ideas for classroom examples.
What teaching and learning resources will help women in STEM?
(1) Booklets with problems – and their detailed solutions, plus explanations on how to get the solutions. Some PowerPoint slides I use from a prominent Chemistry textbook publisher have solved problems, but they omit certain steps, leaving the students confused. I have to go to the whiteboard and add in how they got from, e.g., line 2 to line 3. All instructors may not be doing this. If the slides are going to help students, they need to show all the steps to the solution. The American Chemical Society prep books for their various standard exams do a great job of this.
(2) Resources with group work could appeal to women.
What needs to happen in the STEM field to attract more women?
(1) Even more role models and more pay equity.
(2) More encouragement for women. They are frequently unsure of themselves. Example 1: We had a super student who was a Biology major, and we tried to encourage her to develop her skills with a Chemistry major. It took a lot of persuading, but she finally changed majors and was a literal star in our classes – a super high achiever. Later she confided to us that she had wanted to major in Chemistry all along, but just didn’t know if she was capable. Example 2: I tried to encourage my daughter Patricia as she was growing up, to excel in school and she said, “Why can’t you accept that you just have a dumb little girl?” She got to college, and her math professor told me, “Patricia doesn’t know she’s smart.” Patricia opted for a Psychology major until a close friend was severely injured in a traffic accident and suffered greatly. This was the turning point! To do something effective to alleviate physical pain, Patricia changed to a Chemistry major and earned a PhD in Biochemistry from UT Austin. She also held postdoctoral research appointments and has a nice set of publications.
A couple of my students also have answers to this question. One said:
I believe outreach to young girls in either middle school (junior high) or elementary school would help tremendously in introducing these girls into the available STEM fields. Other things that could be considered is opportunities for older girls in high school to get involved with hands-on activities to encourage them to discern going into a STEM career. Maybe even having women peers and mentors from local universities and workplaces to visit young girls in the community to encourage them if they are interested, acting as role models and personal heroes.
Another student shared this:
I believe that more opportunities need to become available first. It really is de-motivating to women applying for jobs within the STEM field when mainly men are getting the job. The second thing is a change of mindset of the older generation who work in STEM. I feel like many older men who have traditional mindsets will not fully accept having women in the field. The last thing is more equal pay overall.
What skillset is beneficial for considering a pathway in STEM?
(1) Analytical and critical thinking skills. [These can be developed if they don’t come automatically!]
(2) Ability to formulate a good question and convey information clearly and specifically. Sometimes students ask me a question about problem 8, e.g., and I have to say, was this in Part A, Part B, or Part C of the assignment? They tell me they worked from 7 -10 and I have to say, was that am or pm? They say the video didn’t come up on the online assignment, and I have to say, which assignment?
(2) Ability to accept being wrong – and learn from the experience! STEM is based on facts; you can’t argue the molecular weight of nitric acid like you might argue some ideas in the softer sciences.
How many disciplines within STEM does your work apply to?
I help provide Chemistry coursework for majors in Chemistry, Engineering, Biology, Math, and the Pre-Health Professions.
What is driving women to study in STEM?
More role models. Our increasingly technological society.
What motivates you to learn?
Interest! Keeping up with the latest so I can share it with my students! Maintaining a vigorous, current research program.
When was your “ah-ha moment” when you realized this is the pathway you wanted to take?
People had assumed I was going to be a writer, but I also liked high school Chemistry. In college I had a double major in Pharmacy and Journalism with the plan to write the information sheets that come with prescriptions. Working in a pharmacy bored me, but I had already taken Organic Chemistry for Pre-Meds, Pre-Pharmacists, etc, and did not want to take Organic Chemistry again for Chemistry majors. I asked if they would count my OChem toward a Chemistry Major, and they said yes, so I have been a Chemistry major ever since. My OChem professor was super inspiring; he shared great information about the latest drugs as he taught us about their functional groups and the various types of organic compounds. I went to graduate school as an Organic Chemistry major; however it was a bit too theoretical for me as I enjoy applications and any examples about drugs were non-existent in those classes. In the meantime I took Physical Chemistry by conference one-on-one with a great professor. I even found an error in an iconic textbook in the field, which impressed my professor. Even though I had thought Physical Chemistry was too hard for me, by taking it by conference and meeting individually with the professor, I found out I could do it, and I have been a Physical Chemist ever since!
Which contributions in the field have inspired you to do more?
Biographies of famous scientists are motivating! Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel prizes, and crusader for world peace was terrific! His studies of the chemical bond, the alpha helix structure of proteins, and “Vitamin C and the Common Cold” are legendary. Marie Curie worked tirelessly under poor conditions – and won two Nobel prizes. Lise Meitner had to face gender discrimination, but excelled.
Where should more funding be spent?
(1) Scholarships for undergraduate majors in Chemistry. It is the central science! Too many students opt for other majors, erroneously thinking that Chemistry is “too hard.”
(2) Grants to small universities for research and course upgrades. Instrumentation with its maintenance, is almost prohibitively expensive in many cases.