Starting Out with the Right Education

Tell young women that they can do it, that they are no different now than people who made important contributions were in their own youth. Vera C. Rubin As part of an initiative funded by the National Science Foundation, the Association for Women in Science compiled an extensive database of in-depth interviews with 26 women scientists, engineers, mathematicians, and administrators and 16 postdoctoral fellows and students. While this group clearly is not a complete and broadly representative group of practitioners and scholars, it does present a cross section of these women's views of the joys and sorrows, problems and solutions, and strengths and weaknesses of the STEM professions. This chapter and Chapter 9 address the themes that occur and reoccur.