Subtitle: Social Impact and Interaction
Author: Suzanne Le-May Sheffield
Subject: History of Science/Womens Studies
Paper ISBN 0-8135-3737-1
Pages: 448 pp. 42 b&w illus.
Series: Science and Society

For generations, aspiring women scientists have looked to Marie Curie, the famed Nobel Prize-winning chemist, for inspiration. But what lesson, exactly, are they to draw from her example? Marie Curie was exceptional, but she was ordinary as well. She faced all the trials and tribulations shared by women of her time; furthermore, she had to contend with the barriers against women's wider participation in educational institutions, in scientific practice, and professional attainments and rewards. Indeed, her struggles and failures tell us more about the fate of women in the sciences, historically, than her achievements ever will.

From Maria Winkelman's discovery of the comet of 1702 to the Nobel Prize-winning work of twentieth-century scientist Barbara McClintock, women have played a central role in modern science. Their successes have not come easily, nor have they been consistently recognized. This important book examines the challenges and barriers women scientists have faced and chronicles their achievements as they struggled to attain recognition for their work in the male-dominated world of modern science. As the only comprehensive textbook to examine women's participation in, and portrayal by, Western science from the scientific revolution to the present, Women and Science is an essential teaching and reference tool for students in both the history of science and women's studies.

Suzanne Le-May Sheffield is the associate director (programs) for the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is the author of Revealing New Worlds: Three Victorian Women Naturalists.

Contents
Series Editor's Preface
Introduction: Marie Curie, an Icon for Women Scientists
1 Constructing a New Science: The Masculine Tradition
Women, Nature, and Knowledge in the Medieval World
The New Philosophy: Keeping Women Out
Women's Science Practice in the Seventeenth Century
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
2 Women's Bodies, Women's Minds: The Science of Women
The Weaker Sex: The Science of Woman
Science and Gender: Biology as Social Destiny
Science Turned Upside Down: Contesting the Science of Woman
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
3 Women Doing Science: Multiple Avenues
Science as a Feminine Occupation
Women Writing Science
Women Assisting Science
Women Scientists in a Man's World
Conclusion
4 Women's Education in Science
Girls' Elementary and High School Education in Science
The Struggle to Enter the Ivory Tower: Gaining a University Education for Women
A Case Study in Women's Higher Education in Science: Obtaining a Medical Degree
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
5 Professionalizing Women Scientists
"Women's Work" in the Science Profession
Beyond "Women's Work" in Science
Women Scientists' Contributions to War, Industry, and Public Health
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
6 Women's Advancement in Science since World War II
Barriers to Women's Participation in Science: History Repeats Itself
The Feminist Critique of Science
Women's Success in Science
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
7 Creating a Future for Women in Science
Critical Mass: More Women in Science?
Female-Friendly Science: Educating Women in the Twenty-first Century
Can There Be a Feminist/Feminine Science?
Conclusion
Bibliographic Essay
Chronology
Glossary
Documents
Bibliography
About the Author
Index