‘Where are all the women scientists? Where are the women Nobel Prize-winners?’ he asked, sneering. ‘Women just aren’t as good at science as men are. They’ve been shown to be less intelligent.’ He pressed up so close to my face that I was backed into a corner. What was a sexist rant rapidly became racist, too. I tried to argue back. I listed the accomplished female scientists I knew. I hastily marshalled a few statistics about school-age girls being better at mathematics than boys. But in the end I gave up. There was nothing I could say that would make him think of me as his equal. How many of
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