Women in Science: A Social and Cultural History

by Ruth Watts

The first book of its kind to provide a full and comprehensive historical grounding of the contemporary issues of gender and women in science. Women in Science includes a detailed survey of the history behind the popular subject and engages the reader with a theoretical and informed understanding with significant issues like science and race, gender and technology and masculinity. It moves beyond the historical work on women and science by avoiding focusing on individual women scientists.

Genres: Science, History, Feminism

300 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2007

Reviews

[Emmy M]

Women are badass. That's it that's the review.

[Jared]

Ruth Watts has written an important text that documents not just women's contributions to science, but explores the reasons why they have ben underrepresented. She presents this by exploring not just the individual contributions of women, but traces the historical development of both science and education. By doing this, the reader is provided with historical context for the issue of women in science. The author is not antagonistic against males, but keep the topic very academic.

The chapters are broken into various time periods and the author explores science, education, and women within that time periods. Indeed, the author chooses to focus on history of science or education at length before delving into the role of women. The author provides excellent synopses of women and their contributions, also citing the many researchers (mostly women) who have brought their contributions to light.

The book is dense and written for academics. Individuals interested in the subject should prepare themselves for the author's thorough and detailed analyses of the topic.