Kate Zernike, Author and Reporter for the New York Times “The Exceptions: The Fight for Women in Science”

Photo: Harry Zernike

“The Exceptions: The Fight for Women in Science”

Kate Zernike has been a reporter for The New York Times since 2000. She began as an education reporter and has worked in a wide range of positions across the newsroom, including on the investigations desk, in the Washington Bureau, as a campaign reporter and a health care reporter. She was most recently the Times’ lead reporter covering the abortion debate leading up to and after the repeal of Roe v. Wade. She was a member of the team that won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Explanatory Reporting for stories about al-Qaeda before and after the 9/11 terror attacks. She was previously a reporter for The Boston Globe, where she broke the story of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s admission that it had discriminated against women on its faculty, on which The Exceptions is based.

Nancy Hopkins, a protege of the legendary scientist James Watson, entered science in the 1960s believing it was a meritocracy for women who worked hard enough. Thirty years later, she led a group of accomplished female scientists who prompted MIT to admit it had discriminated against them. The story of these trailblazing women, and how it resonates today, in science and beyond.