For the next year or two, I wanted to be a fireman, and nobody ever told me I couldn't even though there were few, if any, female firefighters in 1956. My parents always encouraged me to pursue whatever career I wanted. This probably helped me go ahead in science in, say, junior high and high school, and not worry about being unusual. My high school physics teacher very consciously encouraged my interest in biology and in science in general. My husband, also an entomologist here at The Field Museum, has always supported my research interests very strongly.
Women are certainly still drastically underrepresented in science.
These pressures are being re-examined in many places, though, and things are changing. I work in, systematics and evolutionary studies. Gradually, though, there are more women being trained in these fields, too. Seeing or knowing active women scientists, no. I had one or two good female science teachers, and I suppose that at least showed me some women who knew something about science.