Women in Chemistry—A Statistical Study - C&EN Global Enterprise

The data given in the new directory of the American Chemical Society and in the 1920 edition of "American Men of Science" furnish the following facts ...
0 downloads 0 Views 126KB Size
INDUSTRIAL

4

AND ENGINEERING

CHEMISTRY

News

Edition

sylvania, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley each have two graduates ; Barnard, Boston, Chicago, Columbia, Drury, Guilford, Kansas, Monmouth, Nashville, Nebraska, Peabody, Richmond, Syracuse, Toronto, and Wisconsin each have one graduate. Women whose work was preeminently in Home Economics were not considered. It is interesting to note, however, that eighteen of the women who gave pure chemistry as their field, specified that they did work in foods or nutrition.

Industrial and Engineering

Chemis try

Published by the American Chemieai Soeiety

Patents Owned by Chemical Foundation

NEWS EDITION

The Chemical Foundation, Inc., has recently published a classified list of the patents owned by it, grouped by subjects under the classification used by the U. S. Patent Office. This publicaticn is the result of work of the Foundation in cooperation with a committee of the Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufac­ turers Association of which D. B. Keyes of the U. S. Industrial Alcohol Company was chairman. This list is published primar­ ily in order that all manufacturers may have a quickly available and comprehensive listing of all patents owned by the Founda­ tion in which the., :::ay be interested, and it is hoped by means of this to avoid a repetition of the happenings in the case of methanol where important patents lay unlicensed in the files of the Founda­ tion for months after the product was being manufactured in Germany and imported into the United States in large quantities.

Editor: HARRISON E. HOWE

Managing Editor: ROBERT P. FISCHELIS

Assistant to the Editor: N. A. PARKINSON EDITORIAL OFFICE:

Associate Editor: D. H. KiiAEtfffER ADVERTISING DEPARTMENT:

706 Mills Building, Washington. D. C.

19 E. 24th St., New York, Ν. Υ.

Entered as second class matter at Easton, Pa. Issued three times a month; Industrial Edition on the 1st, News Edition on the 10th and 20th. Subscription to Industrial & Engineering Chemistry, $7.50 per year; News Edition only, $1.50 per year. Single copies, 10 cents. Subscriptions should be sent to Charles L. Parsons, Secretary, 1709 G St., N. W., Washington, D. C.

Vol.3

SEPTEMBER 10, 1925

No. 17

Women in Chemistry—A Statistical Study B Y M A R I E FARNSWORTH New Brunswick, N. J.

The data given in the new directory of the American Chemical Society and in the 1920 edition of "American Men of Science" furnish the following facts relative to the number, distribution, and education of the American women chemists. The A. C. S. directory gives a much more complete list; most people who are much interested in chemistry belong to the American Chem­ ical Society. Of about 15,000 chemists who are members of the American Chemical Society, 481 or 3.21% are women. The occupations of these are distributed as follows: College teaching or endowed research, 186; high school teaching, 47; industrial work, 107; government work, state and national, 24; students, 54; no occu­ pations listed, 66; duplicate occupations, 3. The year of joining the society is of interest and shows the very rapid increase in the number of women who are taking up chemistry as a profession. Before 1900, there were only 5 women members; in the decade 1900-1910, 20 women joined; from 1911 to 1920, 167; in the three years, 1921-1923, 194; and in the year 1924 alone, 95 joined. These figures need no further comment. The number of women listed in American Men of Science is much smaller but since much more complete information is given in regard to them, it is of interest to study this list also. The total number of chemists listed in this volume is 1852 and of this number 42 or 2.27% are women. Of this total number, 220 are designated with an asterisk and are thus among the 1000 "students of the natural and exact sciences whose work is sup­ posed to be the most important." Only one woman has this honor, or 0.45%. This is not as condemning to women as may seem on first sight since a large percentage of the women chemists ars still young, much younger than most of the men who are starred. Divided into decades, the numbers are as follows: seventy to eighty years of age, 1 ; sixty to seventy, 1 ; fifty to sixty, 6; forty to fifty, 14; thirty to forty, 10; below thirty, 2; date of birth not given, 8. The geographical distribution of these women shows a pre­ ponderance along the northeastern coast. Listed by states in numerical order the distribution is as follows: New York, 11; · Massachusetts, 8; Connecticut, Missouri, and Pennsylvania, 3 each; California, Illinois, Ohio, and Kansas, 2 each; District of Columbia, Iowa, Maryland, Tennessee, Toronto, and Wisconsin, 1 each. One-third of the leading men chemists do not have the Ph.D. degree but of the 42 women who have attained sufficient dis­ tinction to be put in American Men of Science, 38 have the Ph.D. degree. These degrees are distributed among Universities as follows: Yale, 7; Bryn Mawr, 6; Chicago and Pennsylvania, 5 each; Cornell, 3 ; Illinois and Michigan, 2 each; Breslau, Clark, Columbia, McGill, Johns Hopkins, Wisconsin, Toronto, and Zurich, 1 each. The Bachelor's degrees are distributed among the colleges and universities as follows: Mt. Holyoke leads with 5; four did not specify their college but all four had the Ph;D. degree; Bryn Mawr, Cornell, Goucher, McGill, Michigan, Penn­

Chemical Warfare School at Fort Logan From July 12 to 26, a school for Chemical Warfare Reserve Officers for the seventh, eighth, and ninth corps areas was held at Fort Logan, Colorado, the first of its kind ever held west of the Mississippi. In charge of the class of twenty-seven officers were Major G. M. Halloran, Chemical Warfare Officer of the eighth corps area, and Lieut. Mackay, Division Chemical War­ fare Officer, ably assisted by Sgt. Kincheloe and Corp. Soûles. The morning sessions were devoted to instruction in theory such as organization of the army, the functions of its different branches, particularly in relation to the Chemical Warfare Service, and in addition lectures were given by selected members of the class on the properties of the different toxic agents used and the methods of their manufacture. The afternoons were spent in field work in actual use of candles, grenades, Stokes mortars, and Livens projectors, ending with a demonstration on the State range near Golden of a screened attack in which an infantry battalion from Fort Logan took part. The social features of the camp included a smoker given by the officers of the Post in honor of the reserves, a dance sponsored by the reserve officers of Denver and a dinner and dance by the Chemical Warfare Officers. At the dinner Major Halloran,, Lieut. Mackay, Lieut. Beal, and Lieut. Fields were presented with tokens of the appreciation of the members of the school for their efficient work and their zeal in making the fortnight a highly profitable one.

British Publications at Cooperative Rates Publications of the Chemical Society (London) for 1926 will be supplied to members of the American Chemical Society under the cooperative rates as charged for 1925; viz., Journal of Chemical Society, 1926 2 . 0 . 0 . plus postage, 5 / Abstracts, 1926 2 . 0 . 0 . plus postage, 5 / Annual Reports, Vol. X X I I , 1925 9 . 0 . 0 . post free The remittance should accompany order and it should be particularly noted that the price of 9 shillings for the Annual Reports is an advance publication price and is not available if the order reaches S. K. Carr, Assistant Secretary, Chemical Society, Burlington House, London, W. 1, England, later than Christmas Day, 1925.

Cuban Tariff Changes A change in the Cuban tariff involving increases in the duty on pharmaceutical and toilet preparations, organic chemicals and dyes, paints, pigments, and miscellaneous raw materials is predicted. A decrease in the duty on naval stores and possible increases in the tariff on heavy chemicals and fertilizers, in some instances, are also forecast. The proposed revision will come before the Cuban Congress for consideration when it reconvenes in November. American exporters or manufacturers of chemicals interested in the Cuban market, whose interests have not already been presented directly or through their Cuban representatives, may take the matter up through the American Chamber of Commerce in Havana or directly with the National Federation of Economic Corporations, a semi-official body somewhat analogous to the U . S. Chamber of Commerce.