Women Graduate Students

When I started teaching solid-state-physics courses at MIT, nearly 20 years ago, there were very few women at MIT and very few women students in my classes. It was unusual for women students to ask questions in class or to participate in class discussions. As the number of women students increased, they participated more and more, and in very recent years their class participation has become essentially indistinguishable from that of the men. A turning point appeared to occur when the number of women reached a “critical mass” of about 10–15% of the students in a class. But in some other physics courses at MIT the critical mass hasn't been reached.