Eileen Pollack

“As a physics major at Yale in the 1970s, I developed crushes on nearly all my male professors.”

“To make computer science more attractive to women, we might help young women change how they think about themselves and what's expected of them. But we might also diversify the images of scientists they see in the media, along with the decor in the classrooms and offices in which they might want to study or work.”

“Wandering the book fair at AWP is a great way to get acquainted with a wide sampling of the diverse journals that are out there and the wide sampling of people who produce them.”

“In America, nobody's boyfriend wants them to be smarter than he is, and no one wants to admit it.”

“When I was in 7th grade, we were all given an exam. It was science and math, and the boys who did well were skipped ahead so that when they got to be juniors or seniors in high school they would be able to go to the local community college and take calculus and physics there. And I wasn't skipped ahead.”

“The truth is, the less a subject had to do with the visible world, the more talented I was at solving problems.”

“Parents don't want their kids to be nerdy.”

“We forget how recently astronomers figured out what the stars are made of, what makes them shine, how distant they are, how they are born, and whether they remain immutable or evolve and die.”

“I write and teach creative nonfiction. I was a reporter.”

“If a person's self-worth derives from being the only woman in the field, how much affection can she feel toward another woman who might challenge that claim to fame?”

“Success in math and the hard sciences, far from being a matter of gender, is almost entirely dependent on culture - a culture that teaches girls math isn't cool and no one will date them if they excel in physics.”

“If there's a stereotype that you're not supposed to be good at something, that still gets so badly in your way of concentrating.”

“When I left Yale, it was so painful to me. I had worked so hard, gotten so far, and just walked away.”

“All the societal pressures that make girls feel as if they're too smart, especially in the sciences - 'No one will date them. They won't be popular.' - don't apply to boys. The boys are being encouraged.”

“The most powerful determinant of whether a woman goes on in science might be whether anyone encourages her to go on.”

“Combating any kind of obstacle is much easier if you know that it's real and not your fault, and it's something you can fight against.”

“Writers find common ground not through the homelands they once inhabited but the thematic questions with which they grapple.”

“If you're a white male growing up in this society, you're constantly receiving encouragement to go on in science in the form of all the images that you're receiving.”

“For women, even if she's nerdy enough to be Steve Jobs, she's undateable.”

“Many of my friends are scientists.”