Throwback Thursday | Lessons In Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Another amazing book club choice from 2023 was Lessons In Chemistry.

I’m so glad this has been transferred to the screen as it really is such an amazing story about breaking social expectations, all while doing something traditionally female.

Zotts strength throughout the book, while raising a child alone, was so well portrayed by Garmus, and it really made me want her to succeed in anything she takes on, and not just because social norms in 2024 are a lot more diverse than in the 1960s for example.

I’m not going to say things are as equal in the home now, with childcare or in industries such as the sciences, technology or engineering as it could be, and that in some circles a stigma is still attached to a single parent, but this book does highlight how much progress has been made in the last 50+ years.

I’m grateful to the real life people that Garmus has embodied in Elizabeth Zott for standing up to do a job despite being in a male dominated arena, in an age when being a house wife was the expectation and the norm. This is something I want my children to see in the future, I want them and their children to read books of our generation and see further progress and equality across the board by their time.

I will caveat the above with… there is nothing wrong with being a housewife and stay at home mum, but I would hope we live in a generation that recognises that we now have that choice, compared to women entering their twenties and potentially higher education in the 1960s, where they had to push against all expectations to succeed.

Have you read Lessons in Chemistry, what did you think?

G x