Mary Sue Coleman, president of the University of Iowa, said we’ve come a long way from Marie Murdoch’s “Charitable and Easy Chemistry on Behalf of Women,” but there’s still a long way to go.

In the 1600s, Coleman said, that book was the way women were to learn about science.

In the 1920s, she said, a report was published that said the study of science could be detrimental to the physical and mental health of women, resulting in the extinction of the “species.”

In a lecture Tuesday night in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union, Coleman, a scientist by trade, spoke on the challenges of bringing more women into science and engineering fields at state universities. The lecture’s title took a famous line from poet Robert Frost: “Miles to Go Before we Sleep: The Unfinished Journey of Women in Science.”

The lecture coincided with Women’s History Month and the 10th anniversary of the Women in Science and Engineering program at Iowa State.

Coleman said the University of Iowa has tried to emulate the ISU program and has achieved a great deal in terms of adding female students and faculty to the U of I science programs.

In fact, Coleman said, Iowa ranks first in tenure-track female faculty in science. She said that’s not enough. “We’re not taking advantage of the educated pool that should be available to us,” Coleman said.

Coleman described the omnipresence of science and scientific processes on college campuses and linked the role of women to those processes. She said that while 52 percent of the population is female, only 16 percent of those employed in science and engineering fields are women.

She said this is a far cry from the notion that a study of science would cause some serious health problems, but Coleman said that there is still more to be done since women are being driven out of science programs — despite that fact that the government is encouraging women to get involved.

Coleman said she supports affirmative action measures to get more women involved in science.

“I certainly believe that a lot of progress has been made by our adherence to affirmative action programs. I am in favor of retaining these processes to diversify our faculty,” she said.

But even after women are in the scientific workplace, Coleman said, problems arise.

She said that 30-50 percent of women scientists at the University of Kentucky reported experiencing attitudes of condescension, role stereotyping, prejudicial comment, denial of status and invisibility in the scientific workplace.

“It is our collective responsibility to speak frequently on how to diversify faculty,” Coleman said.

Coleman said that while the last chapter of Murdoch’s book, “Using Chemistry to Create Beauty Products,” may seem ridiculous today, its spirit should be commended and applied today. “We must recognize that minds have no sex,” she said, “I’m looking forward to being part of the solution to this problem.”