Women don beards to highlight gender bias in science

Leslea Hlusko, a paleoanthropologist, with primate skull casts in Berkeley's Human Evolution Research Center. (Lexi Jamieson Marsh photo courtesy of Bearded Lady Project ) When you picture a geologist or paleontologist tramping through steep, eroded badlands in search of rocks or bones, does that scientist have a beard? For many people, including women, the answer is yes, which spurred dozens of paleontologists around the world - all of them women - to glue on beards for photos now being exhibited at the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) at the University of California, Berkeley. The ironic message of the Bearded Lady Project is that, contrary to the persisting stereotype, you don't have to be a man to love fieldwork and contribute to science; in fact: many field scientists are not. UC Berkeley's Leslea Hlusko , interviewed for a documentary film about the project that premieres Thursday, Aug. 22, at LHS, voices that love of field work: "For me, being in the field with the wind blowing in your face.. at those moments, I feel like me." The photo exhibit, which has toured the country for more than two years, captures 15 UC Berkeley paleontologists, three of whom are also featured in the 53-minute film(what's the name of the film?). Admission to the premiere, which begins at 4:30 p.m. with an introduction by the project's founders, is free with pre-registration.