Mireya Mayor: Scientist, Mother, Ex-Cheerleader (VIDEO)

I first met Mireya Mayor a few weeks ago when she was the keynote speaker at this incredible science convention. We really hit it off, so I invited her to come chat with me over coffee.

Cara Santa Maria: It's so good to see you again!

Mireya Mayor: It's great to see you!

CSM: Yeah! So I met you at Science Online, which was this awesome conference.

MM: It was a blast.

CSM: And, you were our keynote. I mean basically, what you were really speaking to was being a woman, being in the trenches, being a scientist...

MM: There is this notion that scientists are straight laced or boring or--whatever it is--or manly, as the case may be. And that stereotype, it was important for me to try and break it and really put the message out like, hey girls, it's totally cool to be a scientist and...

CSM: Sure

MM: You could be an NFL cheerleader in one life and still be a scientist later, you know.

CSM: That's what I was going to mention, is that I know that we both have a shared cheerleading past. Of course, mine stopped in high school...I wasn't really that good. But, you were an NFL cheerleader?

MM: Yeah, I basically traded in my pom poms for a lab coat.

CSM: So, you ended up going to Madagascar to study lemurs, right? That was your love, was primates?

MM: Time magazine actually did an article--I think they called it Death Row--and it showed these pictures of the different primates that were on the verge of extinction. And two of them, they had no photographs, just these line drawings. The reason they didn't have pictures is that no one had been able to really study them or go out there, and there were fewer than two hundred left--some people said a hundred--in the wild.

CSM: So, no one had ever captured them on a camera?

MM: No one had ever captured them on film, and that's what really grabbed me. And I thought, okay, I want go and figure out what is this animal and get pictures of it. So, I'm out in Madagascar and I'm studying these lemurs, and me and my colleague discovered a brand new species of primate, and we got to name it. And we went back, and actually, with all the photographs and documentation, I approached the government in Madagascar--I talked to the Prime Minister and the President--and had them declare this area a national park.

CSM: That's so cool because then you can effect change once you get there.

MM: Exactly.

CSM: If you discover that there is a habitat that needs to be protected, you can get involved politically.

MM: That's right.

CSM: (I totally didn't clean that. I didn't clean the apple juice out before I dumped the hot chocolate in!) Okay, so and I also heard that you actually have two really little ones, right?

MM: I actually have four really little ones.

CSM: They're all really little, okay. Wow! I don't know how you do it.

MM: I have a six year-old, a four year-old, and two--well twins--seven month-olds.

CSM: So you just kind of have to find that balance between when you're home with the family and when you're out in the field.

MM: Exactly. But I felt like, especially because I have four daughters, I felt like it would be doing them a disservice if mommy stayed home and didn't do what I'm passionate about. Not that there's anything wrong with staying home.

CSM: Well, you want to be able to inspire them.

MM: Absolutely.

CSM: Being a woman in science makes me a little sad that it's still very rare.

MM: I can't even believe it. You know, I go around the country; I give a lot of lectures. And it still astounds me every time a young girl will approach me and say "I didn't know I could do this." Science has been a male-dominated field. I didn't want to change who I was. You know, I like nice shoes. I like little cute black dresses. And I'm not going to change that so that I'm taken more seriously as a scientist. I'm going to let the science speak for me.

CSM: And that's so important, I think, for young girls to remember too.

MM: And there just does come a point in the school system where the girls are turned off to the science, and I think it's really important to let them know, hey you know, we're doing it!

CSM: And it's important, I think, honestly, because of people like you. So, I want to thank you for that, and thanks for chatting with me today.

MM: Oh no, my pleasure. Thank you!

Mireya Mayor is a wildlife correspondent and primatologist who has received two Emmy nominations for her work with National Geographic. She is also the author of the book "Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer." You can follow Mireya on Twitter @MireyaMayor.

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Comments

[TomMartin]

04:26 AM on 02/17/2012

If I had a daughter I would not want her to be a cheer leader. Those short skirts are so erotic.

[Stefan Bast]

08:27 AM on 02/17/2012

If you had a daughter, you would have to come to terms with the fact, that she will evolve into a sexually active person, while growing up. Those cheerleading groups don't start at kindergarden, after all.

[TomMartin]

08:33 AM on 02/17/2012

Yes, she would become sexually active, but hopefully only in private, and not dress erotically in public.

[linbianism]

08:32 AM on 02/16/2012

Mireya Mayor is closer to cheerleader than "scientist". she may have a science degree from a junior college but she doesnt do real science. her main appeal is to be cute on fake science tv shows.

[Don Mathews]

01:21 PM on 02/17/2012

And your degree is?

[selky8786]

02:33 PM on 03/02/2012

From her biography: Mireya is a Fulbright scholar, National Science Foundation Fellow and published author with a Ph.D. in anthropology from Stony Brook University. She has thirteen peer-reviewed scientific publications.

Stony Brook University is among the best institutions for anthropology PhD training, and her fellowships from the NSF and Fulbright are EXTREMELY competitive. DOCTOR Mayor is an extremely intelligent woman and discrediting her because she is gorgeous, popular, and speaks well on TV serves only to keep young women away from sciences. Attractive people can be smart, too.

[cbjones1943]

02:04 AM on 02/14/2012

1. Anne LaBastille's "Woodswoman" series (especially vols I & IV) has the potential to motivate girls over ~10 to sustain their interest in field biology.
2. Louise Emmons, Mammals, Smithsonian Institution, has been called the greatest living female field biologist. High school girls with a serious interest in field biology would find her book, "Tupai" (treeshrews, U of CA Press, 2000) accessible and sustaining.
3. In my opinion, multitasking roles is not amenable to a serious research career any more than it is to a serious career as a chef (read Anthony Bourdain and think, "data" instead of "Chateaubriand".

Twitter: http://twitter.com/cbjones1943

[Martin Houde]

01:42 PM on 02/13/2012

One reason there are less women in science, the implication it needs.

Women able to have family life and do a PhD, and then a post-doc and become a principal investigator (PI) are rare, because you need mobility and put in long hours. The women PIs I know with kids put them in day care (or school), take them at supper, cares for them until they sleep, then work after they're to bed. 7 days a week. That's a gruelling schedule.

That's for PI. During the PhD and post-doc, there are no neo-natal breaks. For PI, they need to make up for the time lost (funding agencies don't give a crap).

The personal time, and energy, investment is what keeps women who want kids off science. I'm still doing my PhD. Women are as bright and driven as men. But biology (an unmovale part of life) makes it harder for women who want kids then men.

[palindrom]

07:42 AM on 02/14/2012

Well, us guys can pitch in quite a bit, or should. Those are our kids, too.

[Martin Houde]

11:25 AM on 02/14/2012

From what I've seen, guys do too. The only problem being during pregnancy and neo-natal care, where women are, of course, more affected than men. And nobody can change that.

[azatrox]

10:21 AM on 02/12/2012

Having seen Mayor on a handful of shows, my impression is that she seems more interested in self promotion than actual science. I know dozens of female scientists and Mayor never seems to exhibit that fascination for data collection. Rather, she seems to be more of a "TV biologist", not doing much more than posing with primates. Maybe that's the fault of these shows, But I guess if she inspires even just one little girl to become a scientist, what she does is worthwhile.

[GoodwithWood]

04:21 PM on 02/11/2012

Smart chicks are SEXY.

[linbianism]

08:33 AM on 02/16/2012

the problem with mireya mayor that that she is only sexy, not smart, she isnt a real scientist, she just plays one on fake science tv shows mostly

[zenju2]

08:16 AM on 02/10/2012

I LOVE intelligent, capable, aware, self-reliant women!

[wetheenemy]

06:27 AM on 02/10/2012

What is this; two valley girls talking "Italian". Nice looking but fashion challenged "ladies", “ totally”. It would be great if they would stop distracting us with these extraneous hand movements, "duh". Yes - I do appreciate a woman who understands and knows the Periodic Table of the Elements.

[lastpost]

05:25 AM on 02/10/2012

"Science Online"
How many Interweb science hubs are there? Well there’s Science Online, that’s one. Solve for X, so that’s two. Four maybe. No eight. Hold it, sixteen. Er, thirty-two. Wait, sixty-four…

[dsws]

12:39 AM on 02/10/2012

Telling people that something is normal will make them more likely to do it, than telling them that it's good.

Fortunately, it is normal for women to go into science. There aren't as many women as men, but there still are a lot. Prejudice and discrimination aren't gone, but they're orders of magnitude less than they were in Emmy Noether's day. When I was in grad school, I was never aware of anyone believing (or perhaps I should say admitting to it) that the women were any less capable than the men. There were fewer women than men at that level, but everyone there was qualified and everyone knew it.

[researcher]

12:33 AM on 02/10/2012

she is special how many men can say they have been an NFL cheerleader?

I taught a lot of classes and seminars and I think those with both men and women in them did better than those classes with all men or women.

my point, more women in science may improve the discovery process. not sure they should be saying talk nerdy to me. everyone has their kinks I guess.

[elizabeth hershoff]

07:10 PM on 02/09/2012

As an elementary school teacher I know for a fact that girls have absolutely as much interest in science as boys. All children LOVE science if they are exposed to it through exploration and are given the opportunity to use scientific methodology to answer some of there own questions. My first graders would rather DO science than anything -even recess!! What happens to girls as they age is a crime. I blame media insistence on women as fashion queens and marrying material. I don't see a lot of change in the stereotypes to be honest. That's why it's so fantastic to have models such as yourself ,Cara. Of course their is nothing innately "male" about science. But as long as women are the primary caretakers of children and households,women as scientists, or engineers or other labor intensive jobs that require long hours of dedicated thinking will continue I think. Some lucky woman can do both-if she has the financial resources to hire help with her domestic "duties". Women are still doing most of the parenting and other family chores and until that changes I fear they will choose professions that may be less rigorous in terms of time and dedication.

[cerebrogasm]

05:57 PM on 02/09/2012

Years ago I met Lisa Randall over at MIT (quantum physicist) - I knew right then that I had a fair degree of sexism in my attitude toward science - Randall is a knockout - but when she began to discuss the LHC and her books - I had an epiphany - being highly a highly attractive woman can actually work against your interests in male-dominated areas such as science - how many brilliant women have we lost to other disciplines because they had to face down stereotypes and sexual harassment simply because we guys don't always think with the head attached to our shoulders?

I give Cara credit for making an effort to dismantle the stereotype that women in science have to look like my 75 year old aunt to be taken seriously (who's actually pretty attractive even at that age - I know, I'm still a sexist, even among the seniors).

[dmgoss]

05:42 PM on 02/09/2012

How droll that they felt compelled to legitimize a mutual, former practice that sexually objectifies women while simultaneously making a case for an emancipation for women from traditional roles that seem fairly typified in cheerleading.

[quackmonster]

05:36 PM on 02/09/2012

What a boring article.