Physicist/Feminist is a blog about women in science. My goal is to help encourage girls and women to pursue careers in science. I post about issues facing women in the sciences and how to deal with them, write about awesome women scientists of the past and present, and sometimes just talk about science (after all, there is a never ending amount of cool scientific stuff to talk about).
About Vivienne Baldassare: I am an astronomy PhD student at the University of Michigan. I graduated from Hunter College with a BA in Physics in May 2012. My career goal is to become a professor, doing research and teaching at the university level. Aside from science and astronomy, I love reading, knitting, cats, and playing piano/guitar.
Contact: Feel free to contact me with suggestions/questions/comments at physicistfeminist@gmail.com.
Sounds like it’s going to be a great website! Keep up the good work!!
I really like your job ,and i hope that your goal will come true. soon , it’s also mostly every women’s goal who is interested in science , keep going Dr .Vivienne
and by the way i’m really interested in Physics & glad to find your blog 
good luck..
Hello Vivienne,
Congratulations on an excellent blog. I always think it is so important that scientists write for non-scientific readers so ordinary people can understand how wonderful the world is and learn about some of the issues that affect us so deeply. There are still many people who are afraid of scientific developments through lack of understanding. I look forward to following your blog and hope to hear about your own scientific journey.
Good luck and keep it up
Thanks so much! I agree that it’s extremely important for scientists to write for non-scientific readers – it’s also a good way to inspire the next generation of scientists!
Great blog~ Thanks for your wonderful posts. I am an engineer and I love astronomy. I have a basic/amateur telescope that I love
Look forward to reading more of your lovely posts. ^_^
Thank you! I’m glad you like it
So many (female) physicists are into knitting. Is there some cool intrinsic connection there? I’d like to think so. Enjoyed your IWD post.
Best,
Dx
Haha, now that you mention it, I do know a lot of knitting female physicists! I’d like to think there is some cool intrinsic connection too
Great work Vivienne – with women like you around, I’m sure we’ll make more headway and the gender bias in fields such as engineering, science, IT, business etc will be a lot more balanced!
I know lots of amazing and wonderful women in hard sciences. My impression is that once you break into the field the bias subsides but the path to getting there is fierce. Your pursuits are laying the groundwork for future women scientists, and it is much appreciated.
Volunteering with underprivileged girls would be amazing. Even in 2011 a lot of girls believe that they are simply not wired for math and science the way men are. More and more studies are proving this assumption wrong, but what good are studies if they don’t reach the population they are meant to address?
Here is a link to an article about subtle biases that affect girls’ approach to math:
http://www.slate.com/id/2286671/
So wonderful that you created a blog! I got my undergrad degree in Physics, and I know all too well how scarce us girls are in the field (there were only 3 girls in our class…a 1:12 ratio girls to guys. Ridiculous!). I’m going to pass this along to my friend who got her BS in Astrophysics at UCLA. Omg, she’s going to love this!!!
Finally, you can knock it off with all of your Art History, Interior Design and Women’s Studies degrees. We need more women studying how the universe *actually* works. Thank you for this blog.
Vivienne,
I am a high school physics teacher in the Atlanta area. I am currently working on my PhD in curriculum and instruction. My dissertation is titled “Minority Females Attitudes Regarding Their Participation in High School Physics Classes”. This has long been an issue in my school, although through action research methods I have been able to increase my enrollment of female students. Thanks for posting this blogsite, I have gained insight. I defend my proposal today, this gave me some perspective. Cheers, Jamal
This is brilliant, thank you so much for doing this
Thank you so much!
You are a real inspiration and I really respect you. I’m a high school sophomore girl and my grandmother, a strong feminist and member of NOW since the 60′s, has instilled those beliefs in me ever since I can remember. I stumbled upon your blog this evening when I curiously googled “cool story babe shirts offensive” because I see kids at school wearing them and it bothers me so much. I really enjoy your posts, you’re have a lot of meaningful things to say. I wish more women thought like you! And your career is so impressive. I wish I was born with the avidity for science like you, but alas I’ve always had a passion for the humanities and history even though they’re trying to pressure everyone to go into science at school. Anyway, you are really an inspiration and I can’t wait to read the rest of your posts (even the science-y ones!)
Wow, thank you so much! I’m glad you enjoyed my blog!
Hey, I just wanted to encourage you in doing what you are doing. More then ever we need female scientists and female scientists who describe themselves as feminists! I am a PhD student, although I describe myself as a feminist first and then as a formal political scientist.
Good luck with your PhD!
Thank you for your encouragement! Good luck with your PhD as well
Vivienne, this is such a great blog! I do a lot of work in the arts around feminism and work as a social worker by day (very justice oriented). And now I am starting all over again at Hunter in astrophysics (we emailed), and have already learned so much through you sharing your experiences in the field and also really love the intersection of gender and science. Great blog!
This is awesome! I’m in my 50′s & graduated with my Bachelor’s and Master’s in Science then an MD. So I guess I’m the “older generation”! Of course, my schooling was way before PC’s so there was obviously no online access to women scientists/physicians. It was during medical school that the “system” even attempted to put us women in touch with female mentors and, as I recall, there were only two women physicians who were active in this role at my medical school. They are and were wonderful women. Sure there were others but interactions with them were intermittent and not as obviously purposeful as the two the school tried to make available to us. At any rate, kudos to you, Vivienne! Keep giving back to the Universe any way you can!