When I was 9, my teacher told me I couldn't do mathematics because I was a girl. Few girls find the intellectual beauties of mathematics worth such a social price. I can only hope that girls today experience fewer such barriers. Kat Daley I am a woman with a Ph.D. in physics which collects dust on a shelf. I tend to agree with those who explain the lack of women in science as a consequence of the culture of science.
Financial rewards are nonexistent.
The lifestyle is stressful, constraining and not well rounded. Scientists degrade themselves daily by fighting like junkyard dogs with their departmental colleagues for scraps of recognition. And then their antisocial, aggressive behavior is hailed as the magic touch necessary to advance science. I now work as an engineer in a corporation that promotes teamwork with one's colleagues, healthy competition with other corporations and cooperative development of standards to advance the industry. We innovate and produce high-quality products.