What do Dana Scully, Ms. Frizzle and Romana have in common? They’re all characters who have inspired many women in STEM, including those at Albion College.
“The Scully Effect” refers to Dana Scully, a character from “The X-Files” (1993-2018) who was “an FBI agent and the intellectual equal of her partner.” A 2018 study showed that among women who knew of the character, “63% say Scully increased their confidence that they could excel in a male-dominated profession.”
This phenomenon, along with other women in media, have influenced Albion STEM scholars, but they weren’t only inspired by fiction. Students and faculty cited mentors, parents and more as getting them into their field of interest.
Media Inspirations
Chemistry major and Madison, Wisconsin, senior Dana Parker – who was named after Dana Scully – grew up watching “The X-Files,” “Big Bang Theory” with Amy Farrah Fowler and “Bones” with Temperance Brenan.
Parker said her name originated from her parents watching “The X-Files” when they were dating. She added that she “grew up around a lot of science” since her “parents are both scientists.”
“When I think about ‘The Scully Effect,’ I would have to say I am the second generation of my family to be influenced by Scully,” Parker said.
Livonia junior Kaelyn Ruiter, who has a double major in chemistry and physics, grew up watching “Doctor Who.” They loved the character Romana, who was “a time lord,” they said.
“She was smarter than the doctor, always correcting him when he gets things wrong,” Ruiter said. “She was really someone I looked up to. As a kid, I would go to school dressed like her and everything.”
Visiting assistant professor of chemistry Jennifer Reeves said that she didn’t grow up in the Scully era. However, she said “The Magic School Bus” was big in her childhood, and she was inspired by Ms. Frizzle.
“She was a female who taught science and made science fun,” Reeves said.
Associate Provost and kinesiology professor Heather Betz said she found inspiration in Scully herself, adding that she was “a huge fan of ‘The X-Files,’” in addition to medical television shows.
“‘ER’ was really the first sort of real-life medical show on television, and they had some very strong female characters on that show,” Betz said. “You started to see more of it on television, in addition to in the classroom.”
Provost and chemistry professor Lisa Lewis said she doesn’t watch a lot of television, but there was one scientist in the media who annoyed her.
“I understand the important role ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’ plays,” Lewis said. “And at the same time, you couldn’t be more stereotypical of what a scientist is.”
Lewis said she used to volunteer in elementary schools “to try to encourage young students to think about science.” She said that when she would ask an elementary student to draw a scientist pre-Bill Nye, they’d “draw all sorts of color, all sorts of gender, etc.”
“To have (Bill Nye) show up at a time when I wasn’t seeing that necessarily in the drawings; that was frustrating to me,” Lewis said.
Present-day, “there are a large number of strong female scientists on social media doing outreach in many ways,” Reeves said.
“Give it ten years, how many people are going to point to a TikTok star as who inspired them to go into science?” Reeves said.
‘The Real Woman Scientist Effect’
Professor and Chair of the Physics Department Nicolle Zellner said she was “not at all” influenced by media characters when deciding her career path.
“I think it’s really unfortunate that people have attached this phrase to a fictional character because there are so few women in science portrayed in the media. There are so many more in reality,” Zellner said.
“Media is incredibly important,” but “real-life personal examples are more important,” Reeves said.
To Reeves, media is a “good starting place” for representation, “but it very much can’t be the ending place.”
“We need representation to actually exist to where it’s not a notable thing when there’s representation in media because it’s just reflective of real life,” Reeves said.
Most women in Reeves’ family worked in the medical field, and they inspired her to pursue STEM, she said.
Zellner said she thinks “The Scully Effect” should be called the “Real Woman Scientist Effect” to shed light on women “in the field.”
“A lot of the women around me were involved in science, it never stood out to me as much of a need for that when I was younger,” Reeves said. “My life was the exception to the rule.”
For Parker, the biggest influence in her life as a woman in STEM is her mom.
“Conversations in my household commonly center around science. Half of the books in my household are old science textbooks,” Parker said. “It’s just kind of everywhere.”
The Importance of Choosing Your Mentors
Zellner said her role models were people she “interacted with directly.”
“I’m still in touch with them, men and women, and I’m really grateful that I had them to talk to during my formative years in my career,” Zellner said. “But, I’m even more grateful that we’re still friends with each other and we still co-mentor each other.”
Sometimes “with male counterparts” it’s hard to feel respected, Parker said. She added that this is her reasoning for women in STEM being “very confident and bold and out there,” since they have to be to get their voice heard, and this is “the nature of being a woman in a field that was designed for men.”
“I think I am very privileged at Albion in terms of the chemistry department. I know that in our senior class, all of the chemistry majors are women,” Parker said. “But that is not the case everywhere.”
Having good mentors makes “a world of a difference,” Lewis said. Many women in her graduate program at Pitt left due to poor mentorship, she said, but she had “all male mentors” and they told her, “‘You can do this; go do this.’”
“It was the support of a lot of individuals who just started opening doors for me to see what’s possible,” Lewis said.
To Lewis, choosing mentors regardless of demographic is important; rather, she said students should choose them if “their values align with your values.”
“It doesn’t matter what step you’re at or where you’re going,” Lewis said. “Pick your mentors thoughtfully.”
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