Via a comment at Cocktail Party Physics, I have become aware of the existence of the "Physics Chicks" LiveJournal community. It's probably safe to assume that the Female Science Professor isn't wild about the name.
It's billed as "An online community for crazy and cool women in physics," or at least those crazy and cool women in physics with LiveJournal accounts. So, you know, there you go. Something for everyone out there on the Internets.
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Hey, I'm a member of that community. It's pretty low traffic, but we get fairly regular posts from high-school and college age women seeking advice about pursuing physics. For some reason I've found the math communities on livejournal to be more active.
I probably sound a little more snarky than I intended, there. I think it's a good idea, I'm just amused by the name.
I suppose it's time I chipped in considering I actually started the community way back. The name was actually intended to be funny - most people seemed to see it as a bit of an oxymoron.
There had been a lot of discussion between myself and the three other female undergrads in my program about why there weren't more women in physics and why there weren't more people in it either. One of the things that came out of that discussion was the prevailing stereotype of what a Physicist is. Most people think of Einstein but the next image seems to be that of a reclusive, socially awkward, elderly male (we went around talking to students and this is actually what many people said).
To try and break that stereotype a little we each died blue highlights in our hair and made T-shirts saying "Physics Chick" that we wore around the campus. I don't know if it made any difference but it was a fun sort of experiment.
Also, it rhymes!
I'm not offended by the name, I'm just amused that I ran into "Physics Chicks" only a day or so before seeing the complaint about women in college referring to themselves as "girls"...