• Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
  • Home
  • News
  • Longform
  • Life
    • Jeans
    • Madam Zeenat’s Feminist Tarot
  • Health
  • Work
  • Culture
    • Books
    • Art
    • Music
    • Fashion
    • Cinema
    • TV
  • Sports
  • Kranti
  • Vaanthi
  • The FAK
  • About
    • Submissions
HomeKrantiShe Was the Only Woman in a Photo of 38 Male Scien ...

She Was the Only Woman in a Photo of 38 Male Scientists and We Didn’t Know Her Name, Until Now

August 31, 2018

By Sahiba Bhatia

Photo courtesy: Candace Jean Anderson’s Twitter profile

Originally published on 21 March 2018. 

You’ve heard of women being interrupted by men. Now, here’s a woman being literally hidden behind…well…men.  In a photo taken in 1971, at the International Conference of the Biology of Whales in Virginia, there are 38 male scientists and ONE woman. But wait, don’t go shaking your head yet. There’s more.

The woman in the photo is half-hidden by the man in front of her. And the description with the names of all the scientists doesn’t have the woman’s name. So, all you see is half a smiling face of what looks like a Black woman with no clues to figure out who she is in an old, fading snapshot.

This was until Candace Jean Anderson came into the picture – figuratively, of course.

With the desire to write a picture book on the Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972, Anderson was on the lookout for some information. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration helped her out by sending an article. There, amid the long text, Anderson saw the blurry photograph, became curious about the obscured woman and decided to find what her contributions to the conference may have been. She posted the photo on Twitter and soon people began pouring in to help. And voila! The emeritus curator of mammals at the Smithsonian National Museum of National History, Don Wilson, recognized her.

Hey Twitter I'm on a mission:

The woman in this photo was an attendee at a 1971 International Conference on Biology of Whales.

She is the only woman, & the only one captioned "not identified" in the article I found the photo in. All the men are named.

Can you help me know her? pic.twitter.com/MifZvdRXRr

— Candace Jean Andersen (@mycandacejean) March 9, 2018

Sheila Minor Huff, now 71, has a biology degree and worked as a museum technician in 1971 when Wilson first started there. When she applied for her first job, she was asked to work as a typist, which she immediately declined by saying that she went to school too long to be a secretary. After completing her Master’s degree, Huff worked with top government officials on a variety of wildlife and environmental projects, was a member of the American society of mammologists and retired at 58 with one of the highest possible designations at the Department of the Interior.

As for the photo, Sheila said to The New York Times, “It’s kind of like, no big deal. When I try to do good, when I try and add back to this wonderful earth that we have, when I try to protect it, does it matter that anybody knows my name?”

Tags: biology, candace jean anderson, Hidden woman, Sheila jones minor, twitter, Virginia

Share!
Tweet

Sahiba Bhatia

About the author

Related Posts

Atul Kochhar, Priyanka Chopra and Social Media Apologies: Sorry is the Hardest Word

Did You Follow Yesterday’s Work From Home Fashion Twitter Thread?

Khichdi Did Not Become Our National Dish, But Women on The Internet Made a Meal Out of It Anyway

When Women Said #MeToo, Here’s What Some Men Said Too

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

You May Also Like

  • After Payal Tadvi’s Death Can We Allow Medical Education to Continue to Pretend to be Casteless? May 28, 2019
  • Jokha Alharthi’s Man Booker Win Reminds Us of Oman’s Recent Slave-owning Past May 24, 2019
  • In Avengers: Endgame, Black Widow is Sexy, Sterile and So Burnt By Marvel May 12, 2019
  • Let Us Admit the Sins of Atishi Marlena May 10, 2019
  • 20 Questions for SC Panel that Cleared the CJI of Sexual Harassment Charges May 9, 2019


Online Bachchi, Dil Ki Sachchi

Come on over for feminist journalism.

Politics. Pop Culture. Health. Sex. Law. Books. Work.

We write what we want to read.

  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Refund Policy
  • About
  • Contact Us

Subscribe to our email newsletter!

Keep up with us!

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on E-mail

Trending

Sorry. No data so far.

Copyright © 2018 The Ladies Finger
Subscribe to our RSS/Atom feed here