Women in JILA

JILA Women in Physics

JILA is a fun and interesting place to do scientific research. It also boasts a supportive and welcoming environment for women scientists of all ages. Not surprisingly, JILA has attracted a first-class cadre of talented women physicists to its faculty. Read more »

History of Women in Physics

Maria Goeppert-Mayer walking into the 1963 Nobel ceremony with King Gustav Adolf

Lise Meitner lecturing at Catholic University, Washington, DC, 1946. Repository:

Katharine Burr Blodgett demonstrating laboratory equipment. Repository: Smithson

Until late in the twentieth century, women faced significant, and sometimes insurmountable, challenges in gaining access to higher education in the physical sciences and engineering. In the physical sciences, women who did succeed in earning doctorates often faced employment discrimination and encountered barriers to combining a career in science with having a family. Read more »