Book Excerpt! The Bearded Lady Project, edited by Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano (foreword)

“The portraits in The Bearded Lady Project intentionally cause double takes, forcing the viewer to look, then look again. But their real power lies in how they require us to look inward and see that antediluvian ideas about who can and cannot do science still linger. The accompanying stories of remarkable women in paleontology make one hopeful that soon these old stereotypes will finally go extinct.”

~Marcia Bjonerud, professor of geosciences at Lawrence University, author of Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the World

The struggle to feel accepted in a male dominated field is the spark that led to the creation of The Bearded Lady Project: Challenging the Face of Science, edited by Lexi Jamieson Marsh and Ellen Currano. As part of our celebration of Women’s History Month, we are sharing this excerpt in which Marsh expands on the inspiration and the extent of this project.