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When reading Traweek and Wertheim's articles, I found that they echoed a lot of the same ideas. I felt that an overarching theme in both of their works was this idea of physics as this untouchable field, this sect or "club" that requires a sort of proverbial "password" in order to gain entry. Wertheim, with regard to women's access to this field, describes physics as the "Catholic Church" of science. Just as Catholicism has not conceded to the allowance of women as priests, physics is the last of the sciences to see the increased success of women (pp. 7). Likewise, Traweek describes the career trajectory of getting involved in high-energy physics as an induction process (pp. 88 among others). This club, which consists of many senior physicists, has certain standards attached to it. You have to exhibit the kind of character or intelligence that the network - the "club" - sees fit. Traweek describes the "induction" process of a young physicist (post-docs primarily) to the "club" as a series of intentional obstacles (set up by advisors, superior ranked physicists) that must be overcome in order to acheive a repuatation. In order to successfully get through this obstacle course, one must have character or charm - one must exhibit a competitive nature backed by confident individualism (according to Traweek), which is funny since physics claims to be so objective.

Though this idea is not mirrored exactly in Wertheim's peice, she touches on the same underlying principle. In order to make it into the physics "club" that Traweek describes, one has to be very public and vocal about their accomplishments. This touches on the "public-private, male-female dualism" brought up by Wertheim. She talks about this idea of "natural social order" (promoted by social Newtonians and embraced by the Enlightenment) and how this idea that women "belong" in the private sector and men in the public sectors. Though this idea has clearly been overcome in many fields, it has arguably tainted the evolution of physics and thusly the entry of women into the field. This idea was brought up in our previous readings. Women in the realm of physics have complained about its competitive nature. Believing that they are viewed incompetent until they prove their worth (a generalization), they take extra time to go over their results, and find little support from their colleagues. This is unlike the Japanese institutional system (which sounded more ideal to me), where cooperation is encouraged.

This has become a long entry, which was not my intention. I think that both authors touch on some very important points. Physics, more so than the other sciences, attempts to describe universal "truths" (much like religion), and perhaps for this reason, it has become one of the more exclusionary fields. I believe that the structure behind the practice of physics, its exclusionary nature, is part of the reaon why women have found it so difficult to gain access to this part of the scientific world.