Brooke is a ph. d. candidate in the field of nanophysics. she is aware that only 4 percent of physics professionals are women. many assume this is due to women having an inability to comprehend complex mathematics. knowing this, brooke actually scores below her male counterparts on exams, thus affirming the idea that women have difficulty with physics. brooke is experiencing:

Brooke is experience STEREOTYPE THREAT.
Stereotype threat refers to the situational predicament, in which people are at risk of conforming to a specific stereotype about their social group. From research study, it had been confirm that stereotype threat prevent people from exhibiting their best performance when they belong to a group that is not expected of them. 
In the scenario given above, Brooke happens to be a female physicist and people hold the belief that the field of physics belongs to men. The realization of this fact prevent Brooke from doing her best in the test she attempted, making her to score lower than her male counterparts.  

Who it was like back then