Why I strike: for women in science

The same thing always happened in math class, starting in high school and continuing through college: I knew that I unless I went to the board and solved a complex problem off the top of my head, I would spend weeks fending off boys who wanted to “tutor” me. They came unsolicited, most frequently in the first week, and I knew why: I was a girl, therefore I was not good at math, therefore they would help me. (“You should be flattered,” a friend told me once. “Maybe t