How BBC News reports on WOC in STEM.

A PDF of the annotated version of this article can be downloaded here: Annotated M.O.M

The original article can be found here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/stories-45374442 

As highlighted in the pictures above, there are major issues with this article, the main one being the article not being about BP Dakshayani’s actual work as a rocket scientist and what that entails, but instead the main subject of discussion being her home/family life: i.e the way her husband was asked about how he feels about her job and their lives (when he is not relevant to the conversation in any way) and the way every single photo in the article doesn’t portray her work or show her actually working, but instead the photos being of her in the kitchen or with her husband/children.

In addition to this, the way “she would go to bed at 1am or 2am, she says, and get up again at 4am to work” as a result her having to take on all of the housework and cooking on top of her demanding job as a rocket scientist being something that is lauded by the article instead of there being a critical analysis of why in Indian culture the burden is on the women to take on all of these chores. There is something very wrong about how much Indian women work with very little support; instead of cheering on the fact that she is only getting about 2 hours of sleep, the article should be trying to condemn that she has to do this in the first place!

Please see the following link for a better article that actually covers  BP Dakshayani and her teams work (as well as links to further excellent resources):

[1] – Our article on the Mars Orbiter Mission written by Pruthvi Mehta – https://poc2.wordpress.com/2018/09/09/the-indian-women-involved-in-the-mars-orbiter-mission-m-o-m/

For more information on POC scientists please visit our resources page or read through the rest of our blog. We are constantly updating both.

Written by Pruthvi Mehta. For more information see the about page or follow her on Twitter @q_the_ordinary.

Produced by Karel Green. For more information see the about page or follow her on twitter @thisismeonline.