Unfortunately, that kind of sexism is far from dead today. But sites like
http://www.physics.ucla.edu/~cwp/ are working to redress the balance. This
particular example details the contributions that 20th-century women have made
to physics. It has a section about Irene Curie, daughter of Marie, who
apparently 鈥済rew up with radioactivity鈥�, which sounds alarming.
The site hosts short biographies of many physicists you will have heard of,
such as Rosalind Franklin, and others you probably will not have, such as Agnes
Pockels, who pioneered the study of surface films in the late 19th century. For
a great collection of links about women in every field of science see
http://scienceweb.dao.nrc.ca/can/women/wuseful.html, which was put together by
Canada鈥檚 Science Web.