ABSTRACT:
Until the end of the
19th Century Science was not classified into different disciplines.
The first woman named in the history of science was Merit Ptah (2700
BC) in Egypt's Valley of the Kings. In the new Egypt the first
girl's school started in Cairo in 1873 and the first University in
1908. Only a few girls attended the University at that time, mainly
studying the humanities. The first Egyptian woman physicist
graduated in 1940 and received her PhD in nuclear physics in the
USA.
Nowadays the number
of women in physics is increasing in all branches of physics, some
of them are senior managers and others have been decorated with
various prizes. In this talk some statistics will be given to show
the percentage of women in physics in relation to other fields of
science in Egypt. In Saudi Arabia the first girls' school started in
1964 and the first
college for women, which was a section of King Abdul-Aziz University
(where education is not mixed), started in 1975. I was the founder
of the Physics Department of this women's section.
Egyptians have
played significant roles in teaching schoolchildren and university
students of both sexes in all the Arab countries: Saudi Arabia,
Sudan, Kuwait, Yemen, the Gulf States, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, and
Jordan. But with respect to Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, our role
was limited, since classes are taught in French. Arab women living
in the countries located east of Egypt still have many difficulties
facing them, needing to overcome many technical, academic, and
social problems, while women in the countries located west of Egypt
have fewer problems.
There were many
problems in the early days of education in Egypt but the women of
Egypt worked hard to gain the same rights as men and were able to
pave the way for all Arab women. I myself met many difficulties in
my early days. This talk will also describe the impact of the
regional conference on Women in Physics in Africa and Middle East,
which was held in Cairo in 2007.
