Barriers to women’s education and employment in Europe and the United States in the 19th century made it unlikely that any women would be among the few physicists whose ideas are taught in high school and college courses. This paper explores the social settings in which three influential physicists worked—James Clerk Maxwell, Robert Millikan, and Albert Einstein—to better understand the limited opportunities available to women. By acknowledging and explaining why there weren’t more women among these founding physicists, instructors may help students understand the barriers that still exist and feel more empowered to overcome them and pursue physics as a career.
References
1.
American Institute of Physics
, “Materials for Teachers and Students: Teaching Guides on Women and Minorities
,” https://www.aip.org/history-programs/physics-history/teaching-guides-women-minorities, accessed May 2020.2.
Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan
. See link to Google Doc at “This page provides specific teaching practices aligned with the insights from this research
,” online at http://crlt.umich.edu/research-basis-inclusive-teaching, accessed May 2020
.3.
Moses
Rifkin
, “Addressing underrepresentation: Physics teaching for all
,” Phys. Teach.
54
, 72
–74
(Feb. 2016
).4.
“
StepUp
,” https://engage.aps.org/stepup/home.5.
David
Rosengrant
, “Physics champions among white women and People of Color
,” Phys. Teach.
56
, 452
–454
(Oct. 2018
).6.
Dan
MacIsaac
, WebSights: “Women in physics: HERStories, and a girls’ leadership development survey and report
,” Phys. Teach.
52
, 573
(Dec. 2014
).7.
Dan
MacIsaac
, “WebSights: More resources for recruiting women to science
,” Phys. Teach.
53
, 125
(Feb. 2015
).8.
Stephen C.
Brush
, “Women in physical science: From drudges to discoverers
,” Phys. Teach.
23
, 11
–19
(Jan. 1985
).9.
Joseph L.
Spradley
, “Women and the stars
,” Phys. Teach.
28
, 372
–377
(Sept. 1990
).10.
Joseph L.
Spradley
, “Women and the elements: The role of women in element and fission discoveries
,” Phys. Teach.
27
, 656
–662
(Dec. 1989
).11.
Rena Faye
Norby
, “Equitable teaching of physics to women students: Thoughts for the new decade
,” Phys. Teach.
38
, 494
–495
(Nov. 2000
).12.
Joan N.
Burstyn
, Victorian Education and the Ideal of Womanhood
(Barnes & Noble Books
, Totowa, NJ
, 1980
), pp. 15
, 22
.13.
Lindy
Moore
, “Young ladies’ institutions: The development of secondary schools for girls in Scotland, 1833– c. 1870
,” Hist. Educ.
32
(3
), 249
–272
(May 2003
).14.
Phyllis
Stock
, Better Than Rubies: A History of Women’s Education
(Capricorn Books, G.P. Putnam’s Sons
, New York
, 1978
), p. 177
.15.
Barbara Miller
Solomon
, In the Company of Educated Women: A History of Women and Higher Education in America
(Yale University Press
, New Haven, CT
, 1985
), pp. 47
–48
, 63, 118, 134, 136.16.
Margaret W.
Rossiter
, Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940
(The Johns Hopkins University Press
, Baltimore, MD
, 1982
), pp. 15, 53
–64
.17.
James C.
Albisetti
, Schooling German Girls and Women: Secondary and Higher Education in the Nineteenth Century
(Princeton University Press
, Princeton, NJ
, 1988
), pp. 93
, 113, 157, 177
.18.
Marilyn Bailey
Ogilvie
, Marie Curie: A Biography
(Prometheus
, Amherst, NY
, 2011
), pp. 36
, 52, 55, 70, 84, 99
.19.
Clark
Kimberling
, “Emmy Noether and Her Influence,” in Emmy Noether: A Tribute to Her Life and Work
, edited by James W.
Brewer
and Martha K.
Smith
(Marcel Dekker
, New York, NY
, 1981
), pp. 5, 11
–18
.20.
Maria
Rentetzi
, Trafficking Materials and Gendered Experimental Practices: Radium Research in Early 20th Century Vienna
(Columbia University Press
, New York, NY
, 2009
), pp. xvii, 54-55, 65, 80
–82
.21.
Ruth Lewin
Sime
, Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics
(University of California Press
, Berkeley, CA
, 1997
).22.
Adrienne L.
Traxler
, Ximena C.
Cid
, Jennifer
Blue
, and Ramón
Barthelemy
, “Enriching gender in physics education research: A binary past and a complex future
,” Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
12
, 020114
(2016
).23.
Allison J.
Gonsalves
, “Physics and the girly girl—There is a contradiction somewhere
,” Cult. Stud. Sci. Educ.
9
, 503
–521
(2014
).24.
Lauren M.
Aycock
, Zahra
Hazari
, Eric
Brewe
, Kathryn B. H.
Clancy
, Theodore
Hodapp
, and Renee Michelle
Goertzen
, “Sexual harassment reported by undergraduate female physicists
,” Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
15
, 010121
(2019
).25.
Claire G.
Jones
, Femininity, Mathematics, and Science, 1880 – 1914
(Palgrave MacMillan
, New York
, 2009
), p. 72
.26.
Nancy G.
Slack
, “Epilogue: Collaborative Couples – Past, Present and Future,” in For Better or For Worse? Collaborative Couples in the Sciences
, edited by Annette
Lykknes
, Donald L.
Opitz
, and Brigitte
Van Tiggelen
(Springer
, Basel
, 2012
), pp. 274
–275
.27.
Thomas
Lin
, “A wormhole between physics and education
,” Quanta Mag.
(Oct. 18, 2016
), https://www.quantamagazine.org/helen-quinn-on-physics-and-education-20161018/.28.
Rachel
Ivie
and Casey Langer
Tesfaye
, “Women in physics: A tale of limits
,” Phys. Today
65
(2
), 47
–50
(2012
).29.
Sarah
Damaske
, Elaine Howard
Ecklund
, Anne E.
Lincoln
, and Virginia Johnston
White
, “Male scientists’ competing devotions to work and family: Changing norms in a male-dominated profession,” Work Occup.
41
(4
), 477–507
(Nov. 1, 2014
).30.
Henry
Maudsley
, “Sex in mind and education
,” Popular Sci. Mon.
5
, 198
–215
(June 1874
).31.
Olivia
Eickerman
and Moses
Rifkin
, “The elephant in the (physics class)room: Discussing gender inequality in our class
,” Phys. Teach.
58
, 301
–305
(May 2020
).32.
Eileen
Pollack
, “Why are there still so few women in science?” The New York Times Magazine
, Oct. 3, 2013
.33.
Angela M.
Kelly
, “Social cognitive perspective of gender disparities in undergraduate physics
,” Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
12
, 020116
(2016
).34.
Barbara L.
Whitten
, Suzanne R.
Foster
, and Margaret L.
Duncombe
, “What works for women in undergraduate physics?
” Phys. Today
56
, 46
–51
(Sept. 2003
).© 2020 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2020
American Association of Physics Teachers
AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.