He didn't write that many lines of code either. It was a team effort. I don't agree with the media trying to claim a single woman was behind the effort, but elevating other people to try and counter that isn't helping. You just make the poor woman feel slighted and attacked. She genuinely seemed excited about the whole thing. There's no point in diminishing her role in the project.
The woman who everyone is crediting for this has gone out of her way to ask people to stop. She is thankful for appreciation but has been very clear that it is a team effort. It doesn’t matter who did what- one guy traveled to the South Pole several times to make it happen. It was a diverse team of many nations and cultures and genders who worked for years to make it happen, and without everyone involved the project wouldn’t have come together how it had. It’s enough to say that- to say: “here are the faces that made this possible.” It isn’t a competition. Science elevates all.
A great argument I've heard as a response to this whole "how dare the media elevate this woman when it was a team effort" thing is, Neil Armstrong also had a team behind him. A much, much larger team, in fact. Yet, is or was anyone ever doubting the man? Did anyone flip out over people remembering his name and not the names of the whole team, saying he "just" planted a flag? Heck, most people can't even name the other two men who were on the moon with Armstrong.
I don't want to read too much into this, but I honestly think that if Katie was a man, this debacle wouldn't even exist.
@ewqua- there’s a good chance you’re right. However- it’s somewhat inherent to her being made the “face” of the project. The reason she became a viral personality to begin with was political. In cases like Armstrong- an old boss always used to say “the whole team works hard but the quarterback gets the attention.” Or the old saying- “offense gets the glory, but defense wins the game.” So usually we associate a large team effort with a single relatable and prominent face. A president for example gets credit and blame for the ideas and work of many others. In this case- many early spreaders of the image chose it as a way to forward STEM and recognition of women. I’m not saying that is a bad thing- I’m just saying that it isn’t entirely unpredictable that a political move might cause political discussion. That said-
- I suspect but cannot prove you are right that even if she were the “quarterback” of the project without any politics behind it- that the same controversies might be widely discussed where if a man- like the head of the project- had been made the face of it. I also want to recognize that there is an inequity simply in the fact that it wouldn’t require a special effort to try and “get out in front” and make a man the face of such an achievement. But I think much of her attempts at humility are also her way of trying to steer the debate back from politics and put the focus on the incredible scientific achievement.
I don't want to read too much into this, but I honestly think that if Katie was a man, this debacle wouldn't even exist.
Here’s a Twitter thread by him in which he corrects these claims.