Women in STEM: The times they are a-changing

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Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Remember the Manhattan Project? That little undertaking that gave us the atomic bomb and changed the course of World War II? While Oppenheimer was busy getting the spotlight (and now a Christopher Nolan movie), hundreds of women scientists were quietly at work behind the scenes. These women worked as mathematicians, chemists and physicists on the project that ultimately led to the development of the atomic bomb.

But did you hear their names? Probably not. Leona Woods is the only female physicist working on Enrico Fermi’s team. Katharine Way was an expert in radioactive decay who worked at multiple Manhattan Project sites.

Melba Phillips co-developed the Oppenheimer-Phillips Effect and later became an outspoken critic of atomic weapons. Then there were the ‘Calutron Girls,’ who operated the machines that separated uranium isotopes. India also has a rich history of women breaking barriers in science.

Anandibai Joshi, India’s first female physician, obtained her medical degree in 1886. Asima Chatterjee was the first woman to receive a Doctorate of Science from an Indian university in 1944. In recent years, there have been many others.

Tessy Thomas, known as the ‘Missile Woman of India,’ led the development of the Agni-V long-range missile. Gagandeep Kang, the first Indian woman elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society, and Ritu Karidhal, the mission director of India’s Mars Orbiter Mission, are other noteworthy achievers. A little inspiration does go a long way.