This reference source boasts some 500 entries of American women scientists whose major contributions occurred after 1900. Although updated and expanded, this two-volume set is largely based on Martha Bailey's two American Women in Science biographical dictionaries (CH, Apr'99, 36-4237; CH, Dec'94, 32-1850). However, Wayne (independent scholar) includes only professional scientists or science educators, thereby excluding women who may have contributed to science in other ways. Preceding the alphabetical entries are two introductory sections. One discusses issues related to women in science, and the other provides a brief introduction to each discipline. Each biographical entry is approximately one page and includes the scientist's education, professional experience, and concurrent positions. One or two suggestions for further reading are listed with most entries, but references are not. To compare this title with other relatively recent works, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, edited by M. Ogilvie and J. Harvey (CH, Feb'01, 38-3076) includes only 9 of the 70 women with surnames beginning with "A" or "B" that are in Wayne's set; only 5 of 70 are included in Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, edited by E. J. McMurray, J. K. Kosek, and R. M. Valade (CH, Mar'95, 32-3652). This set is valuable for its unique content and compilation of biographies based on a specific gender, nationality, and time period. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students. Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students. Reviewed by D. M. Braquet.

A comprehensive examination of American women scientists across the sciences throughout the 20th century, providing a rich historical context for understanding their achievements and the way they changed the practice of science.

This reference source boasts some 500 entries of American women scientists whose major contributions occurred after 1900. Although updated and expanded, this two-volume set is largely based on Martha Bailey's two American Women in Science biographical dictionaries (CH, Apr'99, 36-4237; CH, Dec'94, 32-1850). However, Wayne (independent scholar) includes only professional scientists or science educators, thereby excluding women who may have contributed to science in other ways. Preceding the alphabetical entries are two introductory sections. One discusses issues related to women in science, and the other provides a brief introduction to each discipline. Each biographical entry is approximately one page and includes the scientist's education, professional experience, and concurrent positions. One or two suggestions for further reading are listed with most entries, but references are not. To compare this title with other relatively recent works, The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science, edited by M. Ogilvie and J. Harvey (CH, Feb'01, 38-3076) includes only 9 of the 70 women with surnames beginning with "A" or "B" that are in Wayne's set; only 5 of 70 are included in Notable Twentieth-Century Scientists, edited by E. J. McMurray, J. K. Kosek, and R. M. Valade (CH, Mar'95, 32-3652). This set is valuable for its unique content and compilation of biographies based on a specific gender, nationality, and time period. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates through graduate students. Lower-division Undergraduates; Upper-division Undergraduates; Graduate Students. Reviewed by D. M. Braquet.

A comprehensive examination of American women scientists across the sciences throughout the 20th century, providing a rich historical context for understanding their achievements and the way they changed the practice of science. Much more than a "Who's Who," this exhaustive two-volume encyclopedia examines the significant achievements of 20th century American women across the sciences in light of the historical and cultural factors that affected their education, employment, and research opportunities. With coverage that includes a number of scientists working today, the encyclopedia shows just how much the sciences have evolved as a professional option for women, from the dawn of the 20th century to the present. American Women of Science since 1900 focuses on 500 of the 20th century's most notable American women scientists—many overlooked, undervalued, or simply not well known. In addition, it offers individual features on 50 different scientific disciplines (Women in Astronomy, etc.), as well as essays on balancing career and family, girls and science education, and other sociocultural topics. Readers will encounter some extraordinary scientific minds at work, getting a sense of the obstacles they faced as the scientific community faced the questions of feminism and gender confronting the nation as a whole.

Winner of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Prize In volume one of this landmark study, focusing on developments up to 1940, Margaret Rossiter describes the activities and personalities of the numerous women scientists—astronomers, chemists, biologists, and psychologists—who overcame extraordinary obstacles to contribute to the growth of American science. This remarkable history recounts women's efforts to establish themselves as members of the scientific community and examines the forces that inhibited their active and visible participation in the sciences.

Women of Science is a collection of essays dealing with contributions women have made to various scientific disciplines, written by women scientists in those disciplines. The areas covered are: astronomy, archaeology, biology, chemistry, crystallography, engineering, geology, mathematics, medicine, and physics. The women who have written these essays are, for the most part, not professional historians, but rather scientific professionals who felt the necessity of researching the contributions women have made to the devlopment of their fields. The essays are unique, not only because they recover lost women who made significant contributions to their disciplines, but also because they are written with a depth of understanding that only a scientist working in a specific area can have. The essays will be of interest not only to students (especially women students) of science who may be unaware of the many contributions women have made, but also to readers of the history of science whoses texts more often than not fail to include the work of most women scientists.

This survey of female scientists in recent American history “offers compelling data alongside the multiple stories of individual women” (Science). The third volume of Margaret W. Rossiter’s landmark survey of the history of American women scientists focuses on their pioneering efforts and contributions from 1972 to the present. Central to this story are the struggles and successes of women scientists in the era of affirmative action. Scores of previously isolated women scientists were suddenly energized to do things they had rarely, if ever, done before—form organizations and recruit new members, start rosters and projects, put out newsletters, confront authorities, and even fight (and win) lawsuits. Rossiter follows the major activities of these groups in several fields—from engineering to the physical, biological, and social sciences—and their campaigns to raise consciousness, see legislation enforced, lobby for passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, and serve as watchdogs of the media. This comprehensive volume also covers the changing employment circumstances in the federal government, academia, industry, and the nonprofit sector and discusses contemporary battles to increase the number of women members of the National Academy of Science and women presidents of scientific societies. In writing this book, Rossiter mined nearly one hundred previously unexamined archival collections and more than fifty oral histories. With the thoroughness and resourcefulness that characterize the earlier volumes, she recounts the rich history of the courageous and resolute women determined to realize their scientific ambitions.