In America, WOMEN IN SCIENCE may seem like a contradiction. Clearly women have faced obstacles in entering the scientific field that men have not had to confront but that has not stopped some from persuing their dream of scientific study and making a world of difference to, well, the world. And yes, there are more than a few names on the list although even if pressed, few of us could do more than think of MADAM CURIE, RACHEL CARSON, MARGARET MEAD.... Consider this list:
Rosalind Elsie Franklin, a pioneer in molecular biology whose discoveries led to understanding DNA, Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, OM, the founder of protein crystallography whose scope of achievements singles her out as a great ethicist, peace advocate AND scientist. Or, are you aware of Admiral Grace Murray Hopper, a pioneer in computer science who usually held two jobs, one in the military and the other in corporate America. In both arenas she advocated for women 'to be all they can be'. And then there are Maria Goeppert-Mayer, a Nobel prize winner in physics who developed the nuclear shell model of atomic nucleii, and Helen Sawyer Hogg who was a columnist and astronomer who focused on variable stars in globular structures, Rozsa Peter, founder of the recursive Function Theory but whose name is nearly forgotten just because she was born a woman. Roger Arliner Young, lived the life of a struggling Zoologist just because she was female yet she received a Ph. D. in Zoology, the first woman to do so ! May Edward Chinn, physician, struggled all of her life as well...she was born to a runaway slave and Native American mother yet her work in cancer research led to the Pap Smear. Emmy Noether a reknowned creative mathematical genius, worked to prove Einstein's Theory of Relativity proving two theorems that were basic to both general relativity and elementary particle physics. One theory still bears her name. Lise Meitne lived her life as A Battle for Ultimate Truth: she collaborated with the winner of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Chemistry but her name was omitted even though she was instrumental in proving the first theoretical explanation of nuclear fissure. The list of illuminaries continues: Lillian Moller Gilbreth also known as the Mother of Modern Management, Annie Jump Cannon a theorist of Star Spectra, Rosa Smith Eigenmann who was the first woman ichthyologis of significant accomplishments, Ada Byron an analyst, metaphysician and the founder of scientific computing, Mary Anning , anthropologist and Sophie Germain who was another revolutionary mathematician.
Modern women in America continually face challenges of teasing, a lack of encouragement, stereotyping, childcare, competition, marginalization and bias. However, there is more effort on the part of government and private industry to reduce those barriers and encourage women in STEM. The days of WOMEN IN SCIENCE (or math, technology, etc) may not be over but they are numbered, because, after all is said and done, 'a mind is a terrible thing to waste' . Perhaps WOMEN IN SCIENCE will no longer be an oxymoron but a wave of the future.