The insufficient word in Physics Today’s first issue

When Physics Today debuted in May 1948, its first editor, David Katcher, wrote the following in an editorial introducing the magazine.

In his engaging article “Physics Today turns 75 ,” (Physics Today, May 2023, page 42) current editor-in-chief Richard Fitzgerald comments on that editorial, saying, “One part of Katcher’s description above is notably out of date, though. Physics Today has evolved into more than a magazine and can be found well beyond the printed page. We have a website, email newsletters, social media, and webinars, and we’ll continue to seek out and engage with our audiences wherever they may be.”

I feel that Fitzgerald’s feature missed an important opportunity to discuss an even glaringly more out-of-date part of Katcher’s description, in the first sentence: the use of the pronoun “him”—which makes the introduction to both the magazine, and thus Fitzgerald’s article, explicitly gendered.

Given, as Fitzgerald puts it, that Physics Today strives “to be a reminder of our commonalities as scientists,” the magazine’s 75th anniversary presents an opportunity to reflect on the contributions that women have made during the lifetime of the publication and in the discipline it covers.

Perhaps a starting point could be to observe that the only mentions of “women” or “girls” in the article are literally in small print in two of the figures: the 1992 ad for Hubble Postdoctoral Fellowships and the word clouds.