The ability of women to enter and succeed in scientific fields has long been affected by traditional ideas of gender-appropriate behavior and ability. Traditionally, the idea of gender-specific socialization created and reinforced a fundamental division of labor by gender. Women were primarily responsible for domestic issues of home and family, and men were expected to be the primary breadwinners (Sonnert 4). However, this gender-specific division has been considerably weakened in recent times, primarily because of the increased participation of women in the labor force. Nonetheless, the thought that underlies the division has not completely disappeared, and it remains largely responsible for the dearth of women in science and engineering fields today.
The period from 1940 to 1972 is generally considered to have been a golden age for science in America. Unfortunately, it is also generally considered to have been "a very dark age for women in the professions" (Rossiter xv). Rossiter offers evidence to demonstrate that the growth and affluence of that period did not benefit the sexes equally. In fact, she argues that it unleashed forces that hastened women's exit, marginalization and underuse in the scientific fields. This marginalization was then used as a rationale to justify denying further training to women, thus forming a vicious circle that women would need decades to break and which, indeed, they are still attempting to break through today (Rossiter xv).
Rossiter argues that the exclusion of women from the scientific fields was directly related to the age-old belief in their position as homemakers. She surveys the evidence to argue that most of the women's traditional employers during the decades leading up to the 1970s, such as women's colleges, teachers colleges, and colleges of home economics, began closing their doors to women during the 1940s (Rossiter xv). One of the reasons for women's exclusion was tied to ...