I REFER to Dr Bashirah Ibrahim’s letter on the ‘Important role of Women in Physics’ (GDN, April 9).
Young students have to draw inspiration from the past pioneering women scientists.
The challenges faced by the early female scientists to break through male domination is far too numerous than those that exist today.
Marie Curie, two-time Nobel prize winner and the most famous scientist of her time, had to face false rumours and the right-wing Press of the time.
There were many female scientists who are not credited for their contribution such as Mileva Marić, Albert Einstein’s first wife. Even though it is known that her ideas were central to Einstein’s science, her contribution is rejected for want of evidence.
In those days a woman’s contributions going uncredited would hardly be surprising. Since the genesis of professional science in the 19th century, female scientists, with notable exceptions, have often received no credit for their work.
Furthermore, the work of those who collaborated with male relatives has often been subsumed into their brother’s, father’s or husband’s body of work as in the cases of astronomer Caroline Herschel or chemist Marie-Anne Lavoisier.
Pioneering Indian female scientist Kamala Sahonie’s application was turned down by the then director of the Indian Institute of Science and Nobel laureate Professor C V Raman on the grounds that women were not considered competent enough to pursue research.
She had to respond to the rejection by holding a ‘satyagraha’ outside Raman’s office which persuaded him to grant her admission for the first time in it its history.
Her acceptance into and work at the Bangalore institute paved the way for women to be accepted into the institution.
Katherine Johnson, who was awarded the US Presidential Medal of Freedom and was responsible to put John Glenn in space, overcame racial and gender-based discrimination to become an integral part of Nasa’s work in space exploration.
She and the subsequent women who worked in Nasa set the base for new explorations to send spacecraft not only to the moon, but also to the edges of our solar system in the decades that followed.
The present statistics show that physics still has one of the largest gender gaps in science. At the current rate, it will be more than two centuries until there will be equal numbers of senior male and female researchers in physics.
Dr Bashirah’s observation on the female students’ overwhelming response and enthusiasm is an encouraging turning point.
If we really want to see the increase of female physicists and close the gender gap, we need to implement new initiatives on further reforms over and above any currently-running initiatives in education, mentoring and academic publishing.
For the future female scientists, there are still a lot of new missions which lie ahead for them.
Sidney Ponniah
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