That’s why we were all taking the class! I think it even seemed silly to me then, but I couldn’t help but think it.īut I told myself I couldn’t quit then, I had to give it a shot. Now it seems so silly that I could have possibly thought that the guys in that class knew more about E&M than me. I was very upset when I went home that day. How on earth did I get here? Can I possibly pass this class? Do these guys already know everything about E&M while I know nothing? If I take the class and don’t do well, am I doing a disservice to women everywhere? Again, how did I get here? All kinds of questions went through my mind. I nearly panicked, while being really surprised at my response. I looked around and saw that I was the only woman, and it was such a mix of emotions. I was a sophomore in college the first time that I was the only woman in a class, and it was an Intro to Electricity and Magnetism ( E&M) course with only about eight students. I had watched a lot of Bill Nye The Science Guy and Julius Sumner Miller (“Physics is my business!”), but I didn’t feel like one of them. However, I just didn’t see myself as a scientist. I took physics classes because I had done well in physics in high school and enjoyed it. I went to Purdue University for college knowing that I liked math and unsure what I would do once I graduated. We would like to share our memories of the first time we were the only woman in the room along our physics path and the effect that it had on us. The first time that this happens in a young woman’s educational path, it can have a tremendous effect on how she views herself, physics, and her place in it, often very unexpectedly. With such a small female-to-male ratio, at some point on a typical day a woman in physics often sees herself alone in a room full of men. Connolly is the first female professor in experimental physics in the history of the department. Three of those were only hired in the past four years, and Prof. Out of approximately 55 professors, five are women. The entering class of 48 physics graduate students included 12 women last year. Here, there were four women out of 48 students who graduated with physics bachelor degrees in 2013. The OSU Physics Department is not atypical in this regard. Source: “Women, Minorities, and Persons with Disabilities in Science and Engineering,” National Science Foundation.
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