Let’s Talk Bookish: Women in STEM in Books

Let’s Talk Bookish is a weekly meme that was originally created and hosted by Rukky @ Eternity Books starting in August 2019, and was then cohosted with Dani @ Literary Lion from May 2020 to March 2022. Book Nook Bits has hosted since April 2022, with Dini at Dini Panda Reads as co-host from February 2025.

A friend and DHR contributor is a woman in STEM, and as soon as I saw this topic I immediately squealed and showed it to her. She was thrilled, as was I – this feels so incredibly important right now with everything else going on, and it’s such a wonderful thing to shine a light on. So a big thanks to both Aria and Dini for doing so!

Let’s Talk Bookish March 7th:
Women in STEM in Books

 Prompts: Over the years, there have been an increasing number of books about women in STEM. What do you think of this trend? Do you like it or is it/can it be poorly done? In honour of International Women’s Day tomorrow (March 8), what are your favourite books ft. women in STEM and what books are still on your TBR?

I think it’s a really good trend. I fully believe in “you can’t be what you can’t see”, and the more diverse representation across different areas we have out there, the better. There have been pushes for more women to enter STEM over the years, and there are still plenty of problems with getting women in male dominated fields, but if kids and teens can read about these women in both fiction and non-fiction, it gives them an idea of how they can get into these fields, too, and what that might look like.

I do think it can be poorly done, and although the focus is on films, Dee – the DHR contributor mentioned above – has done an excellent series over at DHR about the portrayal of scientists in films, both the positive and negative. As for books, I think there has to be a lot of care and consideration put into the characters, and you really need the knowledge for them to read as real women in STEM, rather than, say, jumping on a bandwagan.

Unfortunately, I haven’t read a whole load of books featuring women in STEM (something I need to rectify!), likely because I don’t tend to read a whole lot in the genres they feature in. So, I asked Dee for her suggestions – as mentioned above, she’s kind of an expert, and definitely my go to for this kind of topic!

She said The Three-Body Problem features a fascinating female scientist, while Episode 13 had an interesting female STEM lead. Then there’s The Apothecary Diaries, a light novel/manga/anime focused on a young woman who is in an apothecary in the Chinese red light district/women’s court.

As for books on my TBR, I don’t always know explicitly what sort of characters a book has, if that makes sense, so it’s possible I have multiple books featuring women in STEM, but I’m not always sure which ones…or I don’t pick them out specifically for that reason, anyway. I am trying to read a little more sci-fi this year, so hopefully I’ll encounter more women in STEM through this, though I also know I likely have some contemporary romances with FMCs who work in STEM.

That said – if you have suggestions and recommendations for me, I absolutely would love to hear them! This is without a doubt an area I need to do more on, and a gap I need to fill, so please do let me know about your favourite books featuring women in STEM.