I'm not female. I barely consider myself male. I'm a astrophysicist, so I hope I see more diversity be it genders or ethnicities. Differing points of view are what drive invention. The more angles, the more in focus the picture becomes. Welcome to science Catnublia.

When I started my career in academia, it was heavily male-dominated in just about every field. That's changed a lot now, but i had a lot of students come back and talk to me about things I had told them as students -- like how they were going to have to fight like hell to be taken seriously in a primarily male field. They told me that since they didn't experience college that way that I was off base. Now that they were out there in the world, they realized I was right (I'm sad to say).
What I mean here is that if you want the real skinny on what it's like to be a woman in a male dominated field -- talk to women working in the field. Shadowing a few would be even better -- although colleagues might behave better with an audience. But if you want it, don't let anything or anyone stop you. Women academics outnumber men in most academic areas now and it's because we just got tired of being told 'no'.

I have a BS double major in Astronomy and Physics (1981), an MS in Systems Engineering (1989), an MS in Geosciences (2006), an MS in Space Studies (2014), and an Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction, with a specialization in Math (1997). I earned my BS in 1981. I never had any issues with faculty or students concerning these being "male dominated fields." I've been an Astronomy, Physics, and Math professor for the last 26 years.

A very good friend of mine is a highly respected doctor of genetics. She says that although she often came up against people who tried, often unconsciously, to discourage her from going into science, once she'd made it to graduate level she found that the vast majority of scientists she worked with respected her for the quality of her work and intellect.

There have been numerous women who have contributed a great deal to astronomy and astophysics including Caroline Herschel, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Vera Rubin, Maria Mitchell, Antonia Maury, Carolyn Shoemaker, Nancy Roman and many more who are so respected that you should find you have to deal with far few idiots than you might expect.

Good luck

American Astronomical Society has a committee on Women in Astronomy.

[womeninastronomy.blogspot.com]

Very important to get connected.

I had many great women role models in the field. I didn't leave because it was the "good ole' boys' club". I left the field because my passion and truest talent was elsewhere.

Wishing you luck!

I have no knowledge about women in astronomy or astrophysics but I worked for 14ys at Loral Corporation designing, building, deploying, and supporting classified military hardware and software on F15 and F16 programs. There were quite a few female engineers I worked with. So there are plenty of women in electronics engineering.

Don't allow yourself to be discouraged by anyone.
When I was kid, I wanted to become a scientist more than anything. I didn't know
enough yet to pick a specific area of science, but I knew that's what I wanted to
do when I grew up.
Unfortunately, I was repeatedly discouraged from pursuing that path, by the people
closest to me at the time. They finally got to me, and I lost all interest in pursuing that goal. I never found anything else that I wanted to do after that.
Don't let anyone talk you out of it. Go into whichever area appeals to you the most.
If you start getting discouraged, go watch "Hidden Figures", as many times as it takes.
There are more and more women going into astronomy and astrophysics.
When it comes to getting jobs, look to Telsa and JPL, and the like.
Good luck!!!!

I'm not a woman but as a science teacher I want to give you my full encouragement. I have had many strong female science students over the years. Many now have doctorates in either medicine or research. They have been equal to, in all respects, to my male students - I have just had fewer of them.

Forty years ago I graduated with a degree in optical engineering. I was not lacking in opportunities, most of them because i was a young woman in a male dominated fiield. I was also pretty good , but half the battle was in communications with my male colleagues. I got all the assignments that required communicating with visiting engineers and scvientist from other countries and was often called into "polishing" papers and proposals.

These times are over with. Now you will compete with other women and men in your field.

It can be a pain because of the way that some of the men will behave. There are men and women who will treat you unfairly because you are a woman, but there are also those who will will treat you fairly. There are men who will only see you as a sexual object, but there are others who will be you as a colleague. Things won't change without some of us showing that women can do it. Best wishes to you.

Mayim Bialik holds a similar doctorate to her character on Big Bang Theory (neuroscience) and I feel like she's had a lot to say on the subject of gender in academics over the years. Vandana Shiva is the first person that came to mind in regards to 'being a badass scientist despite the aggressive patriarchal values of both the scientific community and her native culture trying like hell to stop her."

I have a bachelor's in physics. In my college there was about 1 woman every 2-3 years. I'm often the off one out in any group. I'll have something in common but always a few things unique to the group. I am used to it.

Honestly, you won't be judged too much, but some people will give you a hard time, but certainly the minority. Just show your passion and you'll be unstoppable. If you have any questions, feel free to ask me.

I was in the Marine Corps for 5 years (very male dominated field) and am just entering my junior year for a physics degree. Anything specific you would like to know? Imposter syndrome is very real. I always felt I had to prove myself. Expect people to not trust that you know what you're doing (compared to equally qualified male)

When I was drawing street plans for a civil engineer,which includes: water, sewer, sump, stripping, grading, electrical conduit, tentative plans, calculating paving material and weight, placing transformers, street lights and fire hydrants,and preparing negative declarations for county approval men, oh and calculating and preparing engineer estimates to charge the clients, and contract. .. men couldn't care less if you were male or female. Are you soft angel food cake material to let a rude person disturb your passion and goals? We worked with women in hard hats who took us out to oil wells to understand property lines and easements. No one cares these days. Male, female, green, blue. you get respect when your attitude and your work is good. There has always and will always be haters. There are men who just flat out don't like woman. I urge you not to let it get to you. If someone is nasty, it's most likely because they feel threatened and will come up with an excuse (for themselves in their heads) that it is because you are green or blue. just make your parents proud of you and then make your children proud of you. Or I should say: respect you. Ya, let's strike the word: proud.

No personal experience (dyscalculia kinda gets in the way of such things) but I dated a woman who was an astrophysics student. She was (and probably still is) very much an 'I do what I want and fuck society if it tries to tell me no,' type, so she really didn't care that she was often the only woman in any given class. The fact that she was so matter-of-factly stubborn about staying visible amidst the guys was probably one reason she succeeded at it. That and she was very good at astrophysics.

And it can only get better than it is by more women being involved. If you really want to do this, do it. Do it for all those of us who cannot. Or, just because ya wanna.

You will probably have to work harder than the men around you. Do it anyway, and kick ass!

"Lab Girl," is a wonderful, hilarious memoir by a woman scientist, Hope Jahren, a Ph.D. geobiologist.

You would love it.

[theguardian.com]

Yeah. Avoid this guy: [theverge.com]

There are stats presented in this video by Gad Saad that you will find encouraging. Do watch the whole presentation. He may say some things you may take issue with. But, Gad is a real guy. This is important.

Steven Pinker also presents some bits of reality that are good about women becoming more involved everywhere.

May be knowing "Margaret Hamilton" will inspire you.
[wired.com]

Follow your heart.

First work on your sentence structure. You will have to do a lot of writing." Do any women in science have experiences to share?"
Yes. It will be much easier for you than it was for us.

I'm not answering this question

[hmc.edu]