In science, a field demanding all the qualities that have traditionally been regarded as supremely those of the male, women, in spite of many continuing obstacles, have at least gained a foothold. We have already noted that in physics and chemistry we have the double Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie; in physics Marie Curie's daughter Irene Joliot-Curie, also a Nobel Prize winner. Another Nobel Prize winner in physics is Marie Goeppert-Mayer; in chemistry, Dorothy Hodgkin, and in physiology and medicine the Nobel Prize winner Gerty Cori. And another, Rosalyn Yalow, in medicine, and in genetics Barbara McClintock. We have also previously noted that the highest scientific academies are now beginning to open their doors to women, and the English Royal Society, admission to which constitutes the highest scientific honor it is in the power of the English scientific world to bestow, already has a sprinkling of women among its Fellows. In the United States a trickle of women have been admitted into the National Academy of Sciences. When, in May 1991, only six out of the sixty new members elected to the academy were women, one of those elected, Dr. Susan E. Leeman, a neuroscientist, remarked, "I think it's a disgusting percentage . . . It's amazing." In an admirable article by the Pulitzer prizewinning New York Times journalist Natalie Angier, it is clearly shown how discrimination still limits the progress of women in science. While women are entering the ranks of science, social barriers, invisibility at the top, unequal pay, intellectual bullying and the understandable reluctance of women to join the fray, are barriers still very much in place in this man's world.
11 While women constitute 51 percent of the U.S. population, only 22 percent of scientists and engineers in the labor force are women. Within science and engineering, half of the women in these fields choose to receive their degrees in social sciences, while only about 33 percent choose mathematics and physical sciences, and 15 percent select engineering as their career path. 12
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