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THU: Thursday Contributed Sessions

THU 3: Arbeitskreis Chancengleichheit (AKC)

THU 3.2: Invited Talk

Thursday, September 11, 2025, 14:45–15:15, ZHG003

Jo van Leeuwen en what we can learn from women in the History of Quantum Physics — •Margriet van der Heijden — Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), The Netherlands

The narratives of the development of quantum mechanics are as “male-dominated” as this subfield of science itself, science historian Massimiliano Badino noted some ten years ago. The book Women in the History of Quantum Physics: Beyond Knabenphysik aims to challenge these conventional “all-male” narratives. In sixteen chapters, the authors – all members of the international and interdisciplinary working group Women in the History of Quantum Physics – analyse the work and lives of women who contributed to quantum developments in the twentieth century. In this talk I will focus on a few of them – and notably on Jo van Leeuwen whose name is remembered in the Bohr-VanLeeuwen-theorem – to distil some themes that are relevant to understanding why women’s participation in physics research remains low even today.

Keywords: women history; quantum physics; twentieth century