When the number of women enrolling and graduating from physical science and engineering programs was steadily increasing in the 1980s and ’90s, it was not unreasonable to expect that those numbers would keep increasing. Or at least that they would maintain an upward track until men and women were more or less equally represented in the various fields of science. But then something unexpected happened.
The percentage of women in science declined a bit in 2003 in Canada and other western countries, and it turned out to be more than just a hiccup or a statistical anomaly. Rather, it was the beginning of a decline that continues today. What is going on? Why does women’s involvement in science appear to be regressing?
Author and engineering professor Monique Frize raises a startling proposition in The Bold...
Sheilla Jones writes about quantum physics and Indigenous politics in Canada.
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