Jahren has not experienced a great deal of overt discrimination on the basis of her gender up to this point in the memoir (or at least hasn’t recounted it), but her pregnancy changes that—up to this point, Jahren has not acted much differently from the male scientists around her, and has been able to focus entirely on her research. Her pregnancy, and the biological processes associated with it, reminds people like Walter, the department head, that she is a woman. And at her weakest point, Jahren still tries to look like she is in control in front of Walter; when she nearly faints, he does not even help her.