Equivalence: Elizabeth L. Scott at Berkeley is the compelling story of one pioneering statistician’s relentless twenty-year effort to promote the status of women in academe and science. Part biography and part microhistory, the book provides the context and background to understand Scott’s masterfulness at using statistics to help solve societal problems. In addition to being one of the first researchers to work at the interface of astronomy and statistics and an early practitioner of statistics using high-speed computers, Scott worked on an impressively broad range of questions in science, from whether cloud seeding actually works to whether ozone depletion causes skin cancer. Later in her career, Scott became swept up in the academic women’s movement. She used her well-developed scientific research skills together with the advocacy skills she had honed, in such activities as raising funds for Martin Luther King Jr. and keeping Free Speech Movement students out of jail, toward policy making that would improve the condition of the academic workforce for women. The book invites the reader into Scott’s universe, a window of inspiration made possible by the fact that she saved and dated every piece of paper that came across her desk.
Table of Contents:
Introduction. Framing the local research questions (1968). West Point and the field artillery family (ancestry I). Collecting, managing, and summarizing the local data (1969). Aunt Phoebe the astronomer (ancestry II). Reporting the local data (1970). Becoming an outlier. Using the local data for advocacy (1971). 10,000 hours of professional practice. Regressing national data (1972). The UC - Berkeley department of statistics. Focusing on salary data (1973). With Jerzy Neyman. Advocating for data quality improvement (1974). Loyalty oath, civil rights, free speech. Using statistical reasoning toward affirmative action (1975). Productivity as a statistical scientist. Creating the salary evaluation kit (1976). Influencing academic salaries (1977). Continuing efforts to further the careers of academic women (1978 - 1981). After Neyman. (1982 - 1988).
About the Author :
Amanda L. Golbeck is professor of biostatistics and associate dean for academic affairs in the Fay W. Boozman College of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She has had a long-term interest in gender equity issues in academe that stems from her early association with Scott. Golbeck was the lead editor of Leadership and Women in Statistics (Chapman & Hall/CRC Press) and has had a number of published articles on gender issues in the statistics profession. In 2016, the Committee on Presidents of Statistical Societies selected Golbeck to receive the COPSS Elizabeth L. Scott Award.
Review :
"This book is an amazing tour de force." ~ Juliet Shaffer, University of California-Berkeley
"What an intriguing life Scott led!" ~ Deborah Bennett, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Ret.
"The details of what was done when in response to situations are revealing and instructive. We should all have access to her story." ~ Brian Yandell, University of Wisconsin
"The way in which Scott was able to continue her research while simultaneously serving the University system through her gender discrimination work is exemplary and should be inspirational to the academic women of today. Women are still recognised as being under-represented at higher levels of academia, particularly in science, even though it is now 50 years after Scott commenced her investigations! Men and women who are interested in the history of statistics and in the history of gender equity in universities will want to own this book. There is inspiration to be gained and lessons to be learnt by those who still face gender inequity in academia today." ~ Alice Richardson, ANU College of Medicine, Canberra
"Equivalence tells the captivating story of statistician Elizabeth L. Scott, who was a trail blazer for all women in academia, and especially in statistics . . . During her entire time in the Statistics Department, she overlapped with only four other women . . . It is a story of the love, passion, and commitment exhibited by Betty throughout her personal and professional life. It also illustrates the love, passion, and commitment of the author (statistician Amanda Golbeck) for telling Betty’s story. . . Reading Equivalence was an eye-opening experience for me. Having received my PhD in Statistics in 1978, the book helped me place my academic career in a larger context. It felt somewhat like I had boarded a train part way through a treacherous journey, and only slowly came to realize the hardships the passengers had faced before reaching my embarkation point. It brought back memories of some of my early experiences . . ." ~ Jessica Utts, American Statistician
"This book is an amazing tour de force." ~ Juliet Shaffer, University of California-Berkeley
"What an intriguing life Scott led!" ~ Deborah Bennett, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Ret.
"The details of what was done when in response to situations are revealing and instructive. We should all have access to her story." ~ Brian Yandell, University of Wisconsin
"The way in which Scott was able to continue her research while simultaneously serving the University system through her gender discrimination work is exemplary and should be inspirational to the academic women of today. Women are still recognised as being under-represented at higher levels of academia, particularly in science, even though it is now 50 years after Scott commenced her investigations! Men and women who are interested in the history of statistics and in the history of gender equity in universities will want to own this book. There is inspiration to be gained and lessons to be learnt by those who still face gender inequity in academia today." ~ Alice Richardson, ANU College of Medicine, Canberra
"Equivalence tells the captivating story of statistician Elizabeth L. Scott, who was a trail blazer for all women in academia, and especially in statistics . . . During her entire time in the Statistics Department, she overlapped with only four other women . . . It is a story of the love, passion, and commitment exhibited by Betty throughout her personal and professional life. It also illustrates the love, passion, and commitment of the author (statistician Amanda Golbeck) for telling Betty’s story. . . Reading Equivalence was an eye-opening experience for me. Having received my PhD in Statistics in 1978, the book helped me place my academic career in a larger context. It felt somewhat like I had boarded a train part way through a treacherous journey, and only slowly came to realize the hardships the passengers had faced before reaching my embarkation point. It brought back memories of some of my early experiences . . ." ~ Jessica Utts, American Statistician
