No FEMALE won the Nobel Prize in physics

[drizzle]

Okay I know the woman Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie. But seriously, is there not one who won the prize by herself... ALONE?!


Guess what I'm thinking

 

[tiny-tim]

Lisa Meitner

Lisa Meitner should have won it, and didn't.

 

[DanP]

Okay I know the woman Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie. But seriously, is there not one who won the prize by herself... ALONE?!


Guess what I'm thinking

Yeah, must be a terrible and ferocious conspiracy against women. Let's be serious.

There is another women who won a Nobel in Physics, Maria Goeppert-Mayer .
And years when Nobel is awarded to more than one person are very common.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Maria Goeppert-Mayer won it in 1963. If you are concerned that no woman has ever won it singly, there are mighty few people who have - the last single physics prize was 1992, and since the 60's, the tradition is to jointly award it.

 

[mgb_phys]

Okay I know the woman Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband

She won a second one for chemistry, but for doing what we would now consider to be physics.

 

[Werg22]

No one wins Nobel Prizes on their own nowadays anyways.

 

[Brian_C]

Women have smaller brains. It's science.

 

[mgb_phys]

Women have smaller brains. It's science.

And yet the blue whale, in spite of it's brain size, continues to be ignored by the color-biased Nobel committee

 

[hamster143]

What's the gender ratio among physics professors in the developed world? I believe it's 6:1 to 10:1 among Ph.D. students. 58 out of 65 faculty members in Harvard are men.

 

[Pinu7]

Women have smaller brains. It's science.

They also have denser ones.

 

[turbo]

Go, drizzle! My field is extremely out-of-favor, though there are interesting things to report. I hope you can cut through and get some recognition.

 

[Chi Meson]

Lisa Meitner should have won it, and didn't.

I have a Periodic Table with the erstwhile "Hahnium" (105, now Dubnium). ANd now we have Meitnerium (109). Who's laughing now, Otto?

 

[zomgwtf]

Women do physics?

 

[MotoH]

There is a Nobel Prize in Physics?

 

[ideasrule]

Not a lot of women like physics, either now or throughout history. Probably even fewer women like computer science, even though women probably have greater tolerance for the most time-consuming aspect of programming (guess what it is?) than men.

 

[rootX]

I believe in the philosophy that if you see a problem go fix it!

This is out of context, but in practice, I am more like if there is no (Engineering) problem go create (find) one.

 

[Pengwuino]

Yah there's an extremely disproportionate number of men in physics than women so you think one could understand the extreme disproportionate number of male nobel prize winners.

Makes you wonder why people make a stink when women only make up 4 of 10 positions on some random government chair or women score .0001% worse on some standerdized test yet you have a billion to 1 ratio of men to women in physics and no one cares.

 

[ideasrule]

I believe in the philosophy that if you see a problem go fix it!

This is out of context, but in practice, I am more like if there is no (Engineering) problem go create (find) one.

Where's the problem? I don't see the fact that men and women are interested in different things as a "problem". Diversity is a good thing, which is why evolution gave us sexual reproduction in the first place.

 

[Leptos]

From what I've read, men tend to be over-represented in physics and engineering whereas women are overrepresented in linguistics and law. I've also read that male brains tend to be slightly better with spatial-mathematical thinking whereas women tend to be better with language, patterns/relations, and memory.

Based on this, I find it interesting that men tend to be overrepresented in fields such as physics and engineering whereas women are overrepresented in fields such as linguistics and law.

 

[rootX]

Where's the problem? I don't see the fact that men and women are interested in different things as a "problem". Diversity is a good thing, which is why evolution gave us sexual reproduction in the first place.

If you don't see it as a problem, go find another one.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Where's the problem? I don't see the fact that men and women are interested in different things as a "problem". Diversity is a good thing, which is why evolution gave us sexual reproduction in the first place.

I completely agree. I remember in one of my cognitive development classes, my teacher talked about a study that followed young women who were exceptionally talented in mathematics to see if they went on to chose careers as mathematicians. From what I recall, unlike their male counterparts, most didn't go into pure mathematics for their careers. They opted instead for work involving applied math and science - medicine, biology, solving social problems, etc. It just seems that women may be generally more attracted to different professions than men are. Far from being a problem, many people benefited from their choices.

 

[zomgwtf]

Far from being a problem, many people benefited from their choices.

Especially the men who they would have worked for if they chose those other fields...

 

[mgb_phys]

The ratio is likely to get worse, with LHC style mega projects the prizes are going to go to directors of institutes rather than individual discoverers. Men are a higher proportion of directors of mega projects than they are of cutting edge young researchers.

 

[story645]

Probably even fewer women like computer science, even though women probably have greater tolerance for the most time-consuming aspect of programming (guess what it is?) than men.

Debugging, though I don't know if the girls I know write code any less bug free than the guys I know.
Off topic, but comp sci has a somewhat decent percentage of women (about %18-%24, reaching almost %50 in some industry shops), Ada Lovelace is often credited as being the first programmer, and women have made lots of really significant contributions to the field.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Debugging, though I don't know if the girls I know write code any less bug free than the guys I know.
Off topic, but comp sci has a somewhat decent percentage of women (about %18-%24, reaching almost %50 in some industry shops), Ada Lovelace is often credited as being the first programmer, and women have made lots of really significant contributions to the field.

On the network side, I got to give props to Radia Perlman:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radia_Perlman

 

[Proton Soup]

From what I've read, men tend to be over-represented in physics and engineering whereas women are overrepresented in linguistics and law. I've also read that male brains tend to be slightly better with spatial-mathematical thinking whereas women tend to be better with language, patterns/relations, and memory.

Based on this, I find it interesting that men tend to be overrepresented in fields such as physics and engineering whereas women are overrepresented in fields such as linguistics and law.

ja, women seem to be well-represented in anatomy, and they seem to think that rote memorization of structures is the easy part.

 

[Lisa!]

Okay I know the woman Marie Curie, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 with her husband, Pierre Curie. But seriously, is there not one who won the prize by herself... ALONE?!


Guess what I'm thinking

Look at it this way: she was very nice that she decided to share it with his husband!

 

[tiny-tim]

blue and yellow

And yet the blue whale, in spite of it's brain size, continues to be ignored by the color-biased Nobel committee

And goldfish too!

Perhaps if blue whales and goldfish got together, the Nobel commitee would see them as white?

 

[drizzle]

From what I've read, men tend to be over-represented in physics and engineering whereas women are overrepresented in linguistics and law. I've also read that male brains tend to be slightly better with spatial-mathematical thinking whereas women tend to be better with language, patterns/relations, and memory...

Can you back up this statement? Cause I don't think it's true

 

[drizzle]

Look at it this way: she was very nice that she decided to share it with his husband!

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-signs029.gif

 

[Lisa!]

http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-signs029.gif

Who has changed my post?

My bad...I was talking to someone while I was posting that but honestly it's still surprising to make such a mistake

 

[Negatron]

If we had a Nobel Prize in sandwich making, watch out boys!

 

[drizzle]

If we had a [STRIKE]Nobel [/STRIKE]Prize in sandwich making, watch out boys!

Yeah, there're lots of those!



I'm serious to what delay women from achieving that prize in physics. They’ve been in the field long enough, yet not recognized as expected! What qualification/abilities/needs/whatever do men have that they don’t?

 

[f95toli]

Yeah, there're lots of those!



I'm serious to what delay women from achieving that prize in physics. They’ve been in the field long enough, yet not recognized as expected! What qualification/abilities/needs/whatever do men have that they don’t?

But again, there simply aren't that many female physicists to start with; probably less than 15% of all active physicist are female and many of those are relatively young, which is relevant since there is usually a delay of 15-20 years before the prize of awarded for a discovery.
Also, note that those 15% (or whatever, it is probably less globally) is still a huge improvement over the situation say 40-50 years ago.

Hence, statistically you would at most expect something like 5-10% of all laureates to be women.

 

[turbo]

But again, there simply aren't that many female physicists to start with; probably less than 15% of all active physicist are female and many of those are relatively young, which is relevant since there is usually a delay of 15-20 years before the prize of awarded to a discovery.
Also, note that those 15% (or whatever, it is probably less globally) is still a huge improvement over the situation say 40-50 years ago.

Hence, statistically you would at most expect something like 5-10% of all laureates to be women.

Good point. Things are getting better, but it takes time. When I entered engineering school 40+ years ago, there were 5 females out of over 300 freshmen. Not good odds if you wanted a female study-partner. ;-)

 

[ideasrule]

I'm serious to what delay women from achieving that prize in physics. They’ve been in the field long enough, yet not recognized as expected! What qualification/abilities/needs/whatever do men have that they don’t?

Have you considered the fact that few girls are interested in physics? If you were really asking why this is, that's a deep question about the anatomy of the human brain and its evolutionary history. I don't think many people, if any, can answer that question.

 

[Math Is Hard]

Have you considered the fact that few girls are interested in physics? If you were really asking why this is, that's a deep question about the anatomy of the human brain and its evolutionary history. I don't think many people, if any, can answer that question.

There's also the given that grad school and post doc years for women coincide with prime time for being awarded one of http://cornerstork.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/crying_baby.jpg" . I am told that these special projects can be a real time-suck, and can distract from research.

 

[qspeechc]

This reminds me of the thread we had a few months ago on why all the top sprinters are black. There are differences between men and women, and that's just that. Don't lose any sleep over it. No one complains that most nannies or nurses are women.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Look at it this way: she was very nice that she decided to share it with his husband!

Pierre Curie was not a mere hanger-on. Ever here of Curie temperature in ferromagnets? That's Pierre, not Marie.

 

[Lisa!]

Pierre Curie was not a mere hanger-on. Ever here of Curie temperature in ferromagnets? That's Pierre, not Marie.

I know! I was just kidding

 

[arildno]

Pierre Curie was not a mere hanger-on. Ever here of Curie temperature in ferromagnets? That's Pierre, not Marie.

Nonsense, Pierre couldn't even cross a street on his own.

 

[CRGreathouse]

Pierre Curie was not a mere hanger-on. Ever here of Curie temperature in ferromagnets? That's Pierre, not Marie.

I never realized that, thanks. All the accounts I've read did describe him as something of a hanger-on...

 

[mgb_phys]

Nonsense, Pierre couldn't even cross a street on his own.

 

[f95toli]

There are differences between men and women, and that's just that. Don't lose any sleep over it.

Possibly, but I find it hard to believe that this is the whole explanation. When I was an undergrad about 20% of the student in my class were women (this was at a technical university), but the same year about 55% of the students in chemistry were women (it was the first year they were in majority) and when they a couple of years later started a biotech program something like 80% of the students were women. As far as I remember the ratio was about the same among the PhD students. Chemistry and Physics are not THAT different.

Also, there were about 50 people in the department where I did my PhD, the majority were PhD student and of those only 3 were women. All three had the same advisor as me, and she just happened to be the only woman professor...

My point is that areas where there already are many women seems to attract even more women, and once you reach a "critical mass" the percentage of women tends to go up very quickly. Note also that some professions that are "typically male" can be "typically female" in another country, in e.g. Russia the medical profession underwent what is known as feminization after WWII and women have been in majority ever since (note that this refers to doctors, not nurses etc)

 

[muppet]

As an aside, it's worth mentioning that one other woman has won the Nobel in Physics: Maria Goeppert-Mayer, for the development of the theory of magic numbers in nuclear shell structure. (Shared, with her collaborator Jensen and with Eugene Wigner, in 1963.)

 

[arildno]

Susan Howson won the Adams prize (a Cambridge award) in 2002, as the first female.