#GoodRead | How Stereotypes Impact Women in Physics
Astronaut Sally K. Ride, mission specialist on STS-7, monitors control panels from the pilot's chair on the Flight Deck. Floating in front of her is a flight procedures notebook, NASA (Great Images in NASA Description) [public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
"How Stereotypes Impact Women in Physics":
We believe science is rational and unbiased, but is the same true for scientists themselves? In recent years, researchers have begun to question how the culture of the scientific community influences the experiences of those who join it. In a special collection of Physical Review Physics Education Research focused on gender studies, two papers spotlight the ways in which the culture of experimental physics can create an unequal workplace that constrains women’s choices, behavior, and training. Ramón Barthelemy of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland, and colleagues and Allison Gonsalves of McGill University, Canada, and co-workers interviewed students and faculty members at physics labs in several countries, identifying many ways in which stereotypes — both implicit and explicit — affect professional interactions and impact the careers of women.