Tonight on my drive home from a conference on raptors given by Dr. Dan Hart from the American Bald Eagle Foundation, I was listening to yet another amazing edition of CBC radio's IDEAS with Host Paul Kennedy called Of Mice and Men (scroll down a little to reach the podcast) in which we hear her presentation on 'Women in science'.

CBC Intro:

A leading researcher in molecular biology, Shirley Tilghman, was awarded the 2010 Henry G. Friesen Prize in Health Research. She has been president of Princeton University since 2001, a first for a Canadian and a woman. She talks with IDEAS host Paul Kennedy about women in science.

Of course it was no surprise that the anti-feminist "old boys club" establishment of higher education lambasted her work and politics. As soon as a woman makes a breach in this "man's world" the anti-feminists creep out of their cloaked closets and scream to high treason against reason!

Shirley Tilghman, Canadian, is a female-feminist-atheist-scientist and head honcho of a previously old-boys-club dominated university, a perfect combination of outlook onto a new world of thought and reason! She's not outspoken about being an atheist, I think she, like many females in science, see that we have other cats to whip (as we say in French), and that in the real world, religion is but a consequence of patriarchy, and therefore spends more time fighting sexism, which is a bigger problem for women than religion itself. IMO this is one of the reasons we see few female atheists around these forums... we're too busy fighting patriarchy in the real world! The day patriarchy falls, so will religion.

Also of interest:

-Her 2010 Commencement speech

-Some comments from Princeton U. alumni regarding the "controversy" of hiring a woman for a man's job... in 2001 no less!!