“The Educated Woman Can Successfully Lead a Double Life”: Pauline Morrow Austin’s Life in Science at the Dawn of Radar Meteorology

Pauline Morrow Austin was a leader in the development of radar meteorology, during a career from the 1940s into the 1990s. Recovering her story can help us think about issues related to work/life balance and gender inequality in science today.

In 1964, Morrow Austin's alma mater, Wilson College, awarded her an honorary doctorate. The citation praised her for "...showing that the educated woman can successfully lead a double life, owing allegiance to husband, home and children and at the same time contributing to the advancement of our knowledge of the universe." At the time, Morrow Austin was unusual among the alumnae of her women's college. She had not only established a successful career in science, but had also married and was raising two children. She headed the Weather Radar Research Project at MIT, leading a small team of researchers developing strategies for understanding storms and measuring precipitation. She had previous written the first operator's manual for the CPS-9 weather radar used by the U.S. Air Force Air Weather Service. Later, during the early 1970s, she would lead an effort to develop the hardware and software that enabled radar data to be recorded digitally, rather than just on film.

This paper explores what a "double life" entailed for a woman physicist working in militarized science. After persuading her boss that only her baby would see, Morrow Austin was uniquely allowed to take classified work home with her from the Radiation Lab during World War II. She volunteered for graveyard shifts monitoring radar scopes, finding she could cook dinner and tuck her girls into bed, then sleep while they were in school the next day. Her strategies depended upon a willing husband, meteorologist James Austin, and a pre-marriage negotiation where Morrow Austin made clear she intended to work. Finally, her career also featured moments like when a military funder, desperate for qualified "manpower," agreed to hire "a part-time woman" instead of a full-time man in electromagnetic theory.

In a 1996 oral history interview, Morrow Austin offered a thoughtful commentary on how she balanced parenting and marriage with a career. These words may offer some inspiration and useful advice for people seeking the same kind of balance in their lives today, both men and women.