<p>lookingforward, I googled a list of physicists and was amazed at how few women were on the list on Wikipedia. I expected it to very top heavy with men but was surprised by the extent of it. One of the women who looked very interesting and is still alive is Lisa Randall. <a href=“http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Randall”>http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisa_Randall</a></p>
<p>Well in biology/genetics you could be inspired by Barbara McClintock who studied corn and got the Nobel Prize in medicine. <a href=“Barbara McClintock - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_McClintock</a></p>
<p>Pizzagirl, you really might want to learn a bit more about Feynman. He was was the guy on the commission that figured out why the Challenger Space Shuttle blew up.</p>
<p>Yeah, well, one day. </p>
<p>Cobrat, this isn’t about your family. </p>
<p>Speaking of Feynman, it seems MIT wasn’t his first choice school. It seemed he wanted to go to Columbia for undergrad but was turned down due to the fact he was Jewish and they had their respective quotas for that year. That was how he ended up at MIT for undergrad. </p>
<p>Seems MIT was not his top choice as Columbia had a higher overall profile and was perceived to have a stronger Physics department at the time. It’s a story many Physics majors and Feynman admirers, especially those at MIT love to tell to anyone who’ll listen. </p>
<p>“Although I’m not an academic, I have plenty of relatives and friends who are or are going through/have gone through the grad -> PhD/Postdoc process in STEM and non-STEM fields.”</p>
<p>You have relatives and friends who engage in the very topic being discussed on this board? Who would have thought!</p>
<p>Seems we all have some connection to STEM, various ways. Maybe we are your relatives, too, cobrat. Now, any female scientist role models to suggest? Someone attention getting, that young gals can relate to.</p>
<p>When I was applying to PhD programs in physics, I made a list of professors I wanted to work with. There were over 100 on that list. Only THREE of them were women. They were the only one’s I find who were doing research in the area I want to go into.</p>
<p>One thing I do notice, is that even though there are very few professors interested in my area, there are actually quite a few female grad students I have met. This could mean that there will be some change. A lot of the times this happens because of good male mentors. I had a few as well as a very encouraging female advisor. Oddly enough, my first physics professor in college was the only female physics professor I would have for the four years.</p>
<p>By the way, Lisa Randall is great. She gives awesome life advice too.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl, according to your last posts, you are not actually referring to emotional intelligence, but rather a lack of self awareness and a grandiose self image. People who have trouble with emotional intelligence aren’t always arrogant and entitled. A lot of the times they may be very nice but have a bit of trouble reading their peers, or they may have trouble managing and understanding their own emotions. I have a lot of friends like this. They are very nice people, but cause themselves a ton of unnecessary anxiety.</p>
<p>Emotional intelligence is also something that can be learned over time, often through therapy. Self awareness is not a natural thing for many people, even those who appear very social and successful. Someone pointed out to me that’s probably why so many people have mid life crises. When you through around emotional the way you do, it sound very dismissive and condescending. </p>
<p>I don’t know - I have to agree with PG here. As a female chemist, I always loathed the Marie-Curie-as-role model thing; nothing against Marie as a person or a scientist, but really, is that all we’ve got? Somehow it feels like studying George Washington Carver over and over again.</p>
<p>I would much rather learn about Barbara McClintock or Rosalind Franklin or Mae Jemison or Gertrude Elion (if you need anther Nobel Prize winner. And yes, I know they’re not all chemists, but that’s okay.) And I’m still not convinced we really need role models anyway.</p>
<p>@Pizzagirl - why so harsh to @cobrat? I think it’s normal to mention one’s connection to a topic when joining a conversation.</p>
<p>@Poeme - I agree in terms of emotional intelligence (“EQ”?) and in terms of female mentors.</p>
<p>And of course, it’s not like every woman is a girl-empowerer or every man is not. There may be two issues here, one of role models to have available, and to see subconsciously to thwart “stereotype threat” - and on the other hand, connections and mentors who will help you, whoever you are, to achieve. I’ve read that male professors with daughters are among the most supportive of women in their fields.</p>
<p>I was just talking to my son about how apparently now MIT has a support group for undergraduate women in mathematics. He said, “doesn’t that betray a certain problem, that they need such a thing?” But my response was about that GMIM poster, and the lack of women in the department as advisors when I asked in 1990, and the difficulty of even finding women’s bathrooms in building 2 at the time. So it’s a Process. ;)</p>
<p>@scout59 - the reason we need role models is in large part because of the subconscious effect it has on our brain waves. You might like to read that book “Delusions of Gender” that I mentioned above.</p>
<p>No one wants to read more about Ada Lovelace and Marie Curie until we are bored to death. That’s why we’re trying to compile lists of more contemporary and lesser-known but awesome role models of all person types, for kids to know about.</p>
<p><a href=“http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/buildings-grounds/buildings/maria-mitchell-observatory/”>http://vcencyclopedia.vassar.edu/buildings-grounds/buildings/maria-mitchell-observatory/</a></p>
<p>LF,</p>
<p><a href=“Chien-Shiung Wu - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chien-Shiung_Wu</a></p>
<p>Cobrat, saw her, she’s not current. No offense to her, but I think we’re talking about influencing today’s young gals with some contemporary women.<br>
There’s this, but - <a href=“http://www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/womanmonth/2014.cfm”>http://www.aps.org/programs/women/scholarships/womanmonth/2014.cfm</a>
I can’t vet these ladies.</p>
<p>LF,</p>
<p>One of the issues is due to the heavy male dominance in fields like Physics, focusing too much on “current” means you may have far too few female role models, especially at the highest achievement levels to elicit interest.</p>
<p>Not to mention not every young person limits his/her role models to folks from the last 10-30 years. Frankly, that’s a bit too limiting and if I may say so, gives too little credit to younger folks…including “gals.” </p>
<p>Shouldn’t the individual young students decide whether someone’s not current enough for them or not for themselves?</p>
<p>I read the book several years ago, fretfulmother. It was interesting, entertaining, and very well-written. </p>
<p>The kind of female chemists in whom my friends and I were interested were more like these women (and those in analogous lists from following years):</p>
<p><a href=“Women Chemists Committee announces inaugural Rising Star Award and winners - American Chemical Society”>http://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/pressroom/newsreleases/2011/december/women-chemists-committee-announces-inaugural-rising-star-award-and-winners.html</a> </p>
<p>Can’t we just look for some top female scientists without a) having to dig up the long gone or b) having to analyze the question? </p>
<p>(Of course women are open to men as role models. But the point is that, as fields open, the presence of successful women is inspiring to younger women. And it also influences changes, on its own, thus opening more opportunities.)</p>
<p>@lookingforward. Here is a contemporary role model that not only young girls but young boys can relate to…Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of Theranos…who has been secretly working to change healthcare…</p>
<p><a href=“This CEO's out for blood | Fortune”>http://fortune.com/2014/06/12/theranos-blood-holmes/</a></p>
<p><a href=“Change Agents: Elizabeth Holmes wants your blood”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2014/07/08/change-agents-elizabeth-holmes-theranos-blood-testing-revolution/12183437/</a></p>
<p><a href=“Quinn: Meet Elizabeth Holmes, Silicon Valley’s latest phenom – The Mercury News”>Quinn: Meet Elizabeth Holmes, Silicon Valley’s latest phenom – The Mercury News;
<p><a href=“The 30-year-old health sector billionaire - BBC News”>http://www.bbc.com/news/business-28756059</a></p>
<p>
</p>
<p>My point was in disagreeing with your view that someone who is “long gone” like the example of a prominent high achieving female physicist I provided is irrelevant. </p>
<p>Especially considering she’s still inspired many aspiring physics majors in my generation and even in the present if a few young women who started college a couple of years back are any indication. </p>
<p>I don’t know, but your stating whether someone is “current” or “not current enough” reminds me of patronizing assumptions by some older folks during my teen years that it’s impossible for HS teens to view folks from prior generations as role models or appreciate older musical genres/art forms. Not everyone who is young is that narrow-minded. </p>
<p>Say, lookingforward, in post #997, “It’s the lack of clear focus, the detours and rambling, cobrat, that lines some up,” are your referring to cobrat’s posts, to mine, or to someone else’s?</p>
<p>Oh, c’mon, cobrat. As someone said (or hinted,) if we cant find them living, we have a problem.<br>
Of course, some historical figure can inspire. That wasn’t the question. Of course, men can inspire. Please don’t drop ideas in like anti-nerd vibe or patronizing when this thread is already volatile enough and we’re taking a breath. When we talk about, say, tech inspiration, we may look to Jobs or Gates- not Pascal. Lets find the same of the female gender, for hard science. </p>
<p>QM, give us some living inspirational female scientists, please. The ladies in the “of the month” link are intriguing, but I sure can’t vet them. </p>