The Forgotten Half-Life of Women in Physics
The Forgotten Half-Life of Women in Physics
Aug 29 2025, 7:44 AM
https://archive.ph/rIUHu
Quote:Take the case of Harriet Brooks – Canada’s first woman nuclear physicist. Within a span of six years between 1898 and 1904, Brooks discovered the element radon, measured its half-life, kickstarted the understanding of radioactive transmutation of elements, discovered the radioactive recoil effect, and pointed out the multiple stages of radioactive decay. Along the way, she had become the first woman to obtain a graduate degree at McGill University, and the first woman to work with two future Nobel Prize winners. She had proved her skills at three renowned academic institutions, and she had published a paper on her own in Nature.
Yet she had to abandon her faculty position at Barnard College after announcing her engagement. Barnard, founded in 1889 in response to Columbia University’s policy of not admitting women students, insisted that she resign. Her advisor, the Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford, recognized her brilliance, describing her as another Marie Curie, but it wasn’t enough to save her career.
https://thereader.mitpress.mit.edu/the-forgotten-half-life-of-women-in-physics/
https://archive.ph/rIUHu
Quote:Take the case of Harriet Brooks – Canada’s first woman nuclear physicist. Within a span of six years between 1898 and 1904, Brooks discovered the element radon, measured its half-life, kickstarted the understanding of radioactive transmutation of elements, discovered the radioactive recoil effect, and pointed out the multiple stages of radioactive decay. Along the way, she had become the first woman to obtain a graduate degree at McGill University, and the first woman to work with two future Nobel Prize winners. She had proved her skills at three renowned academic institutions, and she had published a paper on her own in Nature.
Yet she had to abandon her faculty position at Barnard College after announcing her engagement. Barnard, founded in 1889 in response to Columbia University’s policy of not admitting women students, insisted that she resign. Her advisor, the Nobel Laureate Ernest Rutherford, recognized her brilliance, describing her as another Marie Curie, but it wasn’t enough to save her career.