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Why A Novelist With A B.S. In Physics Says Science Is Still A Boy's Club

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Eileen Pollack was one of the first two women to graduate from Yale with a B.S. in physics. (Courtesy Beacon Press)
Eileen Pollack was one of the first two women to graduate from Yale with a B.S. in physics. (Courtesy Beacon Press)

Here's a question for every woman who's ever loved science but didn't pursue it as a career: why?

Eileen Pollack has wrestled with that question for most of her life, and she tried to find the answer in her new book, "The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boys' Club."

Eileen Pollack will be discussing her new book Monday at Harvard Book Store.

Guest

Eileen Pollack, novelist, essayist, short story writer. Her latest book is "The Only Woman in the Room: Why Science is Still a Boys' Club." She also teaches on the faculty of the Helen Zell MFA Program in Creative Writing at the University of Michigan. She tweets @EileenPollack.

More

The Washington Post: Why Women In Science Are Lonely — And Shouldn’t Be

  • "Current (and future) women in science should be immensely grateful. In 'The Only Woman in the Room,' an accomplished creative-writing professor at the University of Michigan, who also happens to have a bachelor’s degree in physics, has chronicled her travails as an undergraduate at Yale some 40 years ago, offering an engrossing look at the barriers still facing women in science."

The New Republic: How To Rid The Science Lab Of Sexism

  • "Thankfully, society is beginning to understand that the people who invent a game or build the playing field aren’t necessarily the most talented players of that game, or the fairest arbiters of who should get to play. As women have entered the workforce, corporations and universities have developed rules to deter employees from harassing or carrying on affairs with those they supervise."

The New York Times: Why Are There Still So Few Women In Science?

  • "As one of the first two women to earn a bachelor of science degree in physics from Yale — I graduated in 1978 — this question concerns me deeply. I attended a rural public school whose few accelerated courses in physics and calculus I wasn’t allowed to take because, as my principal put it, 'girls never go on in science and math.'"

Excerpt

This segment aired on October 5, 2015.

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