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Women's enrollment in science degrees peaked in the early 1920s and then began to decline in the US while birthrate increased. The noticeable reduction in professional women such as doctors during the same time period suggests a significant increase in discrimination after the First World War. This discrimination was most likely a backlash from women's participation in the labor force while the men were at war because it proved that women were equally competent and therefore, they went from being a curiosity to becoming a threat.

The high proportion of women in crystallography, atomic science and biochemistry may have been due to the fields' novelty both because women were interested and because men felt the fields lacked status. Other factors probably included the willingness of mentors in these fields to accept women scientists compared to other chemistry fields where women were still considered inferior. Astronomy was another area dominated by women because men felt women were better for performing the tedious cataloging of photographic plates.