[EAS] Women in Physics

[Peter J. Kindlmann]

(from Bob Parks What's New Friday Oct. 13, 2006)
<http://www.bobpark.org>

WOMEN IN PHYSICS: NEW BOOK TELLS THE STORY FOR THE FIRST TIME.
"Out of the Shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to
Physics," edited by Nina Byers and Gary Williams, is an important
contribution to the history of science.  It is forty stories of
women who made major contributions to twentieth century physics,
written by distinguished scientists who are themselves actively
engaged in the areas of physics about which they write. Cambridge
University Press, produced a beautiful 500-page volume, and the
Sloan Foundation provided a grant that reduced the list price to
$35.  It cannot be read without a sense of regret at what the
world lost by not having greater involvement of women in science.
Even today, my freshman physics class averages only 10% women.

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Today's academia enjoins a relentless competitiveness on the ranks of 
its junior faculty. Remember, in one of the Harry Potter movies, the 
little dragon that hatches from an egg and immediately spews a small 
flame? That ability is now all too readily embraced as a requirement 
for junior faculty success, orthogonal though it is to the quest for 
intellectual depth and perceptive teaching. That impressive little 
flame is just that, luminously hot air. And is there any doubt that 
the little dragon is male?   --PJK