"Hi! I'm a real scientist -- welcome to MY laboratory!"
That's how I introduce myself as a docent for our local Audubon centers (and a variation of how I introduce myself on panels at science fiction conventions.) I really am a scientist in spite of my career in computers and in spite of the fact that I'm retired. Being retired means that I can finally follow my dream to be a scientist -- something I wanted to be ever since I was six years old (that would be about 57 years ago, if you're counting.)
But when I was growing up, women did NOT go into science (I was told) and we weren't supposed to be smarter than men, and I didn't know any woman who defied those rules. That was really the biggest problem -- I knew what I wanted, but I didn't have anyone to point the way or guide me.
Without guides, I ended up being herded into a lot of things I didn't want.
Without role models and mentors, my degree in Biology was never really used. "Oh, you can teach," they said (and I tried it) but it made me miserable and I wasn't good at it. My husband's diagnosed heart condition left me reeling with the concept that he really could drop dead at any moment (as a friend who had the same diagnosis did) and I would have to raise two children on whatever anyone would pay me. Home computers were just beginning to enter the business market, so I got a Masters' in Medical Computing and went to work for a city government.
I wasn't keen on programming but I was unusually good at computer support and telecommunications -- and the job lasted over 20 years before I was forced into retirement by downsizing. By then I'd gotten a Masters' in Anthropology (because I wanted to) and again, there were no jobs and no mentors -- but I was retired by then and adrift. My touch of science had grown, though, thanks to my volunteering at the Dallas Museum of Nature and Science and I was now doing fossil preparation work in the paleontology lab and loving every second of it (except when the bone gets funky and gnarly and then it's just annoying.)
I also began volunteering as an eco-educator at two Audubon centers, teaching thousands of children each year and then volunteering to lead Citizen Science (after being trained at Mussel Watch and Amphibian Watch sessions) for these centers. And somewhere along the way, I realized that all these guys who were showing up and giving talks during the "Free Thursday Events" had Masters' degrees (or less) and were calling themselves scientists.
And I realized that I had more science degrees than they did.
And I was doing little investigation projects with kids and the public -- animal surveys, plant surveys, and more.
And that although everyone talks about what scientists think, most of the public has never met a walking, talking scientist who will sit down and talk with them.
And they think scientists are guys.
It was time for a paradigm change.
"Hi! I'm a real scientist -- welcome to MY laboratory!" is my standard greeting at these events -- and you should see the kids' eyes widen when they realize they're going to be able to walk around with a Real Scientist (who knew this would be something they'd love?) I'm roping in people who "always wanted to be a scientist" but who had life run them in different directions to help observe and count species and report their findings to my Facebook page and my blog, because doing things creates understanding.
Right now, society has a lot of inadequate ideas about what we scientists are like, how we think (that's a rant for another time), and how we do science (hint: scientific method is only one of dozens of ways we do science.) Talking about it isn't going to change their minds and isn't going to lead girls into science and math.
But being a public face of science AS a scientist will change that (and being an OLD woman scientist really shakes up the paradigm.)
I will cement my role in society's eyes when I finish my PhD (I'm in the "fight through the snakes and finish the dissertation" phase right now), which will give my words more weight when I talk to people who don't know me. I can't change the whole of society in an instant, but I can start changing things for a few people, and maybe I can be the butterfly that flaps its wings in the forest and starts a little bit of weather somewhere.