"Women & Physics"

* While I was researching a topic for a Science project I came across a very interesting article about women in physics and the injustices they face around the world. At the bottom of my entry I have the link to the article feel free to comment !

“Physics: For women, the last frontier”

Throughout history there has existed a struggle to maintain equality amongst men and women. Unfortunately, this intense struggle of equality still vividly exists today within the field of physics. Physics is a nature science, which studies matter and its motion as well as space and time. In addition, physics deals with concepts such as force, energy, mass, and charge. Both men and women are drawn to physics and practice physics for the same reason, but the women physicists are still very rare.

No matter how many women start out in the field of physics, a common trend across countries is their attrition in going from undergraduate and graduate studies to permanent positions. Moreover, there is still not an abundance of women physicists even in countries with strong family support mechanisms, such as Scandinavian nations. Even in countries where there are more women in the field of physics, few are in leadership positions. In Europe and North America women go to the extreme and even apologize for studying physics. French delegates predict that even if women have perceived advantages in the field of physics it will backfire. Supporting this theory the German delegation stated that the number of German women physicists would be even less in research physics today if a small percentage of positions where not designated for women in the Max Planck Institutes.

After reading this article I was appalled to know that discrimination against women’s educational opportunities and job positions in the field of physics exist. I feel that if you have a true passion for a particular career your gender should not be a factor in achieving your success. By not giving women the opportunity to flourish in the field of physics, women physicists all around the world will not have the chance to attribute their knowledge of the subject.
http://proquest.umi.com.jerome.stjohns.edu:81/pqdweb?did=122556081&sid=1&Fmt=3&clientId=9216&RQT=309&VName=PQD