Nearly a quarter of a century ago, the Boston Globe broke a front-page story that unequivocally named historic anti-feminine gender discrimination as the elephant in the global room of scientific research and advancement. However, it was not “news” to the vast majority of professional women in the English-speaking world.

In THE EXCEPTIONS, Kate Zernike, the reporter whose unflinching eye for accuracy and stark detail gave her 1999 story such cataclysmic power, delves into the deliberate marginalizing and devaluing of female scientists throughout modern history.

While the sidelining of women in STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) really began with the dawn of human literacy and formal education, Zernike’s specific case study --- focused on the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology --- is still, in 2023, shocking in its revelation of the scope, duration and sheer depth of MIT’s entrenched and often defiant culture of patriarchy.

"In reading THE EXCEPTIONS, expect to be shocked, saddened, angered, terrified, frustrated and discouraged. But you also can expect to feel hope, admiration and even moments of solid vindication that made the heroic perseverance of Nancy Hopkins and her colleagues worthwhile."

THE EXCEPTIONS follows the wide-ranging career of MIT molecular biologist Nancy Hopkins, who, like nearly every other gifted female scientist of our era, overcame daily occurrences of male microaggression, gaslighting, deception, underpayment, open insult, stolen credit and numerous other obstacles to make groundbreaking discoveries in (among other achievements) decoding the programming of genes to determine their predisposition to cancer.

But Hopkins was not the only “exception” in Zernicke’s powerful account of the intentional mass-suffocation of the careers of those who dared to demonstrate superior scientific abilities in a so-called man’s world. Her book overflows with the names of women whose original work was commandeered by male professional “friends,” whose accomplishments were dismissed, whose research was stolen outright, or whose potential was extinguished through the arbitrary denial of academic advancement.

In THE EXCEPTIONS, what turned the tide (a process far from complete) for Hopkins and no fewer than 16 other MIT faculty women was their collective discovery that solidarity was the only way to strengthen their individual demands for equity and respect.

In fact, it took “the 16” at MIT four years of grueling research and data collection on their own time to prove that male administrators had lied to them about everything from salaries, to laboratory space, to basic research supplies; that they had withheld information vital to their work at MIT; that they had colluded to isolate female faculty members whose teaching and research skills made them more popular with students; and that (among numerous so-called minor “unreportable” insults) they had intentionally made their working lives so cluttered with unnecessary inconveniences that their personal lives were often burdened by stress and failed relationships.

Throughout THE EXCEPTIONS, Zernike skillfully and sensitively weaves a gripping historical and sociological narrative showing how the lives of these remarkable women intersected even across wide scientific differences.

Beginning with Hopkins herself, who started out determined to succeed as a scientist on the basis of good work being its own reward, all 16 women had to confront the reality that science and academia are no longer (if they ever were) meritocracies. In fact, the better and more significant your work, the more likely you were to draw unwarranted male criticism and open professional jealousy. Hopkins and most of her colleagues labored in near-anonymity for decades because entitled men in power worked behind the scenes to make it so.

There’s no doubt that Kate Zernike’s exemplary investigative reporting blew away the thin veneer of progress that MIT and a host of other prestigious institutions had tried to maintain by allowing women to make up a tiny percentage of their science faculties. THE EXCEPTIONS continues the story of their fight for due acknowledgment, remuneration, power and respect at much greater depth.

And it’s a fight that’s far from over. Amid all the optimism currently generated by the global media over girls being encouraged more than ever to fulfill their potential in STEM fields, there is still too little being done to advocate for those who have soldiered on for decades in those same fields while overshadowed and suppressed by patriarchy.

In reading THE EXCEPTIONS, expect to be shocked, saddened, angered, terrified, frustrated and discouraged. But you also can expect to feel hope, admiration and even moments of solid vindication that made the heroic perseverance of Nancy Hopkins and her colleagues worthwhile. This “herstory” is still unfolding.