The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science Is Still a Boys’ Club

Abstract

"Eileen Pollack had grown up in the 1960s and 70s dreaming of a career as a theoretical astrophysicist. Denied the chance to take advanced courses in science and math, she nonetheless made her way to Yale, where, despite finding herself far behind the men in her classes, she went on to graduate, summa cum laude, with honors, as one of the university's first two women to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in physics. And yet, isolated, lacking in confidence, starved for encouragement, she abandoned her ambition to become a physicist. Years later, Pollack revisited her reasons for walking away from the career she once had coveted. She spent six years interviewing her former teachers and classmates and dozens of other women who had dropped out before completing their degrees in science. In addition, Pollack talked to experts in the field of gender studies and reviewed the most up-to-date research that seeks to document why women and minorities underperform in STEM fields. Girls who study science and math are still belittled and teased by their male peers and teachers, even by other girls. They are led to think that any interest or achievement in science or math will diminish their popularity. They are still being steered away from advanced courses in technical fields, while deeply entrenched stereotypes lead them to see themselves as less talented than their male classmates, a condition that causes them to fulfill such expectations and perform more poorly than the boys sitting beside them"--Publisher information. Preface: Bright college years -- Leaving Liberty. A different kind of math ; Science fair ; Science unfair ; Advanced placement -- Surviving Yale. Freshman disorientation ; Too much male hormone ; Electricity and magnetism ; The philosophy of existence ; X-10, Y-12, K-25 ; Life on other planets -- Return to New Haven. The two-body problem ; Statics and dynamics ; Integration and differentiation ; The women who don't give a crap ; Parallel universes ; The sky is blue.