In The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boys’ Club, author Eileen Pollack recounts her experience in science, beginning as a precocious youngster fascinated by her brother’s chemistry kit, through her graduation as one of the first female physics majors from Yale University in the 1970s, and her decision to abandon science in favor of creative writing. She later returns to Yale and her hometown as part of her research into why there are so few women in science.
In the first part of the book, she describes her insecurities as she pursues an interest in science—being given limited encouragement in elementary school and high school, feeling isolated as the only woman in her college physics and math classes, and believing that no man would ever be attracted to a female physics major. On the outside, she is a successful student; she received top scores...