Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

I was reluctant to read this as I made an erroneous assumption (aren’t they all) that is was a romance novel.   In some ways it is but in more important ways it is a revelation.   Misogyny in the decade of the fifties is hardly surprising.   This book looks at an accomplished woman who struggled against the establishment to be seen.  

Admittedly I was a child during this time but it still just astounds me the climate facing women at that time.   My mother worked in the steel mill during WWII, not as a clerk, secretary, or typist but on the mill floor, with the 4F men.   She used a thirty-plus pound grinder on steel pipe and spark-tested the pipe to verify its composition.   I’m a big guy, I used a grinder when I was in the same steel mill decades later, and I was exhausted at the end of my shift, and I was ten years younger than my mother would have been during that time.   I bring that up because you would make an erroneous assumption that after men saw women doing work like that they would have been hard-pressed to return to misogyny.  

I know my wife was paid less than I was in the same kind of job, because “they” could get away with it.  Speaking to my daughter-in-law, a third generation, misogyny still plagues women in general but is often even heavier on highly educated, “uppity” women.    Logic dictates that 50% of the population should be encouraged to aspire to the highest productivity that is possible. 

This is not a diatribe on men, sometimes the cruelest critic of the accomplished woman is a woman who has suffered similar discrimination and failed to successfully defend themselves.  Which Garmus clearly points out.

Innuendo and discrimination exist and it is EVERY person’s responsibility to defend that part of our population that is being defamed regardless of gender, race, or sexual proclivity. 

Reading this book fired me up, I really enjoyed it but was appalled at the fact that similar bad behavior is continuing.

Garmus injected humor and crafted her characters quite well.   The dog and rowing both hit home for personal reasons.  

I highly recommend the book and implore you to go out of your way to support someone else's striving for success. 

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