Antarctica were not dense enough to be used as building materials. If trees 200 years from now are as spongy as the ones that grew in the Permian Age in Antarctica, they will be of no use.
If you asked Edith Taylor 30 years ago if she could imagine herself collecting rocks on the coldest continent on earth, she probably would have let out one of her contagious full-bodied laughs. Back then, she knew women only as nurses, teachers, artists or secretaries.
Thirty years ago, Taylor was behind a typewriter, tediously typing up reports as a secretary at a chemical abstract company. Because she wasn't challenged by her job, Taylor grew bored and quit.
She then enrolled at Ohio State University as a piano major. Indifferent to which course she would take to fulfill a science requirement, she took botany because it had the fewest lab hours. While she struggled through her piano training studies, her experience in the lab, coupled with motivating role models such as plant anatomist Kathryn Easu, convinced Taylor to switch majors. Years later, working toward a graduate degree in botany, she met Thomas — then her Ph.D. adviser, now her husband.
In 1995, the husband-wife team joined the KU faculty in biological sciences.
The University of Kansas is ideal among universities, Taylor says, because there are a lot of women working in the science departments. In the fall of 2005, the OIRP reported that 31 percent of the
biological science faculty was female which Taylor says is better than most universities.
Although gender equity has improved over the years at the University of Kansas and universities nationwide, Taylor says that an imbalance still exists, particularly in the sciences. There are 922 male faculty members and 565 female faculty members across disciplines at the University, the ORIP reports. Specifically to the natural sciences, which includes all the sciences ranging from biology to physics, only 52 of the total 212 faculty members are women, constituting about 24 percent — significantly less than the 38 percent on faculties across campus.
Thomas was there to support Taylor on her first expedition to Antarctica in 1985, and has accompanied her on seven of her eight visits. Although she was the team leader, Thomas says, questions were deferred to him not only because he was male, but also because he was older and had been in paleobotany longer.
After 11 years at the University, Taylor is living proof that a woman can have a career and a family, and succeed at both. She couldn't have done it without the support of her husband and coworker Thomas, she says.
Now that people are aware of her reputation, he says, it's a different story when they're working at the South Pole. "Now in Antarctica, she's the boss. It's her
field,"he says.
Jeffrey Osborn, professor and chair of the biology department at Truman State University, accompanied Taylor and observed her leadership on two Antarctic expeditions.
During their most recent trip to Antarctica in 2003, bad weather and logistical problems delayed helicopter and plane transport from the camp to the field sites. Taylor reorganized her field team's schedule with the six other teams' schedules to maximize their productivity, while re-coordinating transportation, Osborn says. "She's an excellent role model to both men and women alike," he says.
Some males in the field have interpreted Taylor's domineering personality as "bitty", Osborn says.
Despite the use of the word "bitch" as a derogatory term towards women, Taylor says that she has taken ownership of her reputation as the "bitch queen of the Midwest."
"Like all of us, we can have another side to our personality. Edith is charming and very engaging, and she also has a strong personality - type A," he says. "Unfortunately, in our society, if a woman comes across as assertive and with a strong personality, people may perceive that as bitchy. Edith may tell you about such a reputation, but it doesn't accurately reflect her personality."
"Society doesn't value a woman that's not afraid to give her opinion. If speaking
your mind makes you a bitch, than I'm proud to be one.If someone wants to call me a bitch for knowing my own mind, then I'll have to say thank you, yes, I am," Taylor says.
Though she's faced discrimination in the field on past expeditions, Taylor doesn't hesitate to return to Antarctica. She submitted a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation to travel there again to continue her research, but was turned down, which she says is common. Taylor is adjusting her proposal based on reviewers' comments and plans to resubmit it. If approved, Taylor will travel to Antarctica with Thomas and Ryberg next year.
As Taylor continues to trek to Antarctica to collect more specimens, she also continues her legacy as a prominent and respected scientist, not just a female one.
In the field, she attentively taps at the luminous black rocklike she begrudgingly did on a typewriter so many years before. But in Antarctica, no one tells her what to do. In Antarctica, Taylor is on her own turf. And, there, she rules.
Left: Edith Taylor and her field team arrive back to their camp located on the Shackleton Glacier in Antarctica. Middle: Edith Taylor, pictured in her office, sits behind a piece of petrified peat she collected from Antarctica. Right: Taylor's field team arrives in Antarctica from New Zealand via cargo plane at McMurdo Station.
KU FACULTY RANK BY GENDER (FALL 2005)
Professors
Male 359
Female 80
18 percent female
Associate Professors
Male 220
Female 118
36 percent female
Assistant Professors
Male 149
Female 138
48 percent female
Source: Office of Institutional Research and Planning
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