Research


A New History of American Women in Physics

Young women conducting an experiment in the Physics Laboratory, Wellesley College. Emilio Segrè Visual Archives General Collection, Niels Bohr Library & Archives

Physics has been one of the most reticent fields to welcome women among its members. Even to the present day in the United States, women are underrepresented at almost all levels of education and employment. The dominant historical narrative of physics has reinforced the disparity, prioritizing and centering the stories of men in physics. In short, the history of physics has only ever been told from men’s perspectives. This has led not only to a skewed understanding of the history of science, but also to the assumption that there were almost no women in physics prior to the Second World War.

This project seeks to change the way we understand what it means to be a physicist by telling the history of physics exclusively from women’s perspectives. Contrary to popular belief, vibrant communities of women in physics existed prior to the Second World War at women’s colleges, particularly in the eastern United States. Centering women’s experiences and institutions complicates our assumption that women were absent simply because they have not been visible. However, the purpose of this research is not to play a game of “locate the women” (although this has happened alongside) but rather to reveal new insights about the history of physics in the United States which would have remained un- or under-studied without a direct focus on the history of women in physics. With the shift in perspective comes greater understanding not just of the practitioners of physics but of science itself.

In the course of my research into this project, I have compiled a list of 500+ female physicists who were active in the United States prior to WWII. This information will be made accessible in the next few years. For more information or to suggest an individual for the list, you can email me at joanna.behrman [at] gmail.com.

In-Progress and Forthcoming
  • In progress: Book manuscript A New History of American Women in Physics based on the Ph.D. dissertation The Other Physicists: Female Physicists at Women’s Colleges 1870-1940.
  • Forthcoming: Sections of the history of the Johns Hopkins University Physics Department, including Chapter 1 “Building a Department,” Chapter 2 “Gaining Momentum,” and biographies of Henry Rowland and Robert W. Wood. Christine Wenc, ed.
2024
2023
  • Joanna Behrman. “Sarah Frances Whiting, Pioneering Laboratory Instruction in Astronomy.” American Journal of Physics 91, no. 6 (June 2023), 417-424. Featured cover article. https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0131617 [peer-reviewed]
2022
2020
  • Joanna Behrman. “The Personal is Professional: Margaret Maltby’s Life in Physics.” In Biographies in the History of Physics: Actors, Objects, and Organizations, 37-57. Christian Forstner, Dieter Hoffmann, and Mark Walker eds. Heidelberg: Springer, 2020. <https://www.springer.com/us/book/9783030485085>.
  • J. F. Behrman. “Manuals, Handbooks, and Recipes,” in Between Making and Knowing: Tools in Materials Research, 73-82. Cyrus Mody and Joseph Martin, eds. Encyclopedia of the Development and History of Materials Science. World Scientific Publishing Company, 2020. <https://doi.org/10.1142/11482>.
2018
2017
2014
  • E.C. Behrman, R.E.F. Bonde, J.E. Steck, and J.F. Behrman, “On the Correction of Anomalous Phase Oscillation in Entanglement Witnesses Using Quantum Neural Networks,” IEEE Transactions on Neural Networks and Learning Systems. Vol. 25, No 9, September 2014. <https://doi.org/10.1109/TNNLS.2013.2281938>. [peer-reviewed]

Book Reviews

  • “Science in Times of Danger.” Book Review of Olivia Campbell. “Sisters in Science: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History. (Park Row, 2024.) Americna Scientist 113, no. 2 (MarchApril 2025): 120. doi: 10.1511/2025.113.2.120
  • Book Review of Dresvina, Juliana, ed., Thanks for Typing: Remembering Forgotten Women in History. H-Sci-Med-Tech, H-Net Reviews. 20 April 2023. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=57986
  • “A Survey of Women in Astronomy.” Book Review of Virginia Trimble and David A. Weintraub, eds. The Sky is for Everyone: Women Astronomers in their own Words. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2022.) Physics Today 76, no. 1 (January 2023): 52-53. https://doi.org/10.1063/PT.3.5160
  • “Portrait of a Groundbreaking Astronomer,” Book Review of Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton. Vera Rubin: A Life. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2021. 320 pp.) Science 371, no. 6531 (19 Feb 2021): 788. DOI: 10.1126/science.abg1818 https://blogs.sciencemag.org/books/2021/02/17/vera-rubin-a-life/
  • Book Review of Donovan Moore. What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2020. 320 Pp.) History of Education Quarterly 61, no. 1 (2021): 106–8. doi:10.1017/heq.2020.69.

Other Publications

2025
  • Behrman, J., Bloemer, J., Charbonneau, R., & Da Silva Neto, C. P. (2025). Crossing Borders and Fostering Collaborations. Berichte Zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte, 48(1–2), 6–10. https://doi.org/10.1002/bewi.2144
  • Behrman, J., Cohadon, P.-F., Passante, G., Schumayer, D., & Parks, B. (2025). In this issue: January 2025. American Journal of Physics, 93(1), 5–6. https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0251764
  • Behrman, J., Essick, J., Gould, H., Marrache-Kikuchi, C. A., Parks, B., Cameron Reed, B., Tobochnik, J., & Zengel, K. (2025). In this issue: February 2025. American Journal of Physics, 93(2), 125–126. https://doi.org/10.1119/5.0254806
2024
2023
2022
2021
2020