From Library Journal
Limited to American women "in science" who began their careers prior to 1950, this dictionary, compiled by the life sciences librarian at Purdue University, includes all women listed in the first three editions of American Men and Women of Science (Bowker), starred names from the next four editions, women formally recognized in their field (e.g., through election to the National Academy of Sciences), women identified as scientists employed by the government, and a miscellaneous category (which includes the privately employed, authors, technical illustrators, etc.). Each entry includes full name, dates of birth and death, profession, education, employment history, and marital status, plus a biographical sketch (150-300 words) and other citing sources. More than 500 entries are included. While the coverage is somewhat erratic due to Bailey's particular definition of "in science," this is a useful book. Entries are more detailed than Cynthia Gay Binindocci's Women and Technology (LJ 6/1/93) but less comprehensive than Women in Chemistry and Physics (LJ 10/1/93). Recommended for both lay readers and scholars.
Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Against the odds, women have made contributions in every field of scientific endeavor.
American Women in Science is a biographical treatment of more than 400 women in the social, physical, and medical sciences and technology who began their careers before 1950. Coverage ranges from early female scientists with no formal training, such as Elizabeth Agassiz, founder of Radcliffe College, to Nobel Prize winners Rosalyn Yalow and Barbara McClintock. Many women had to study in Europe, such as Gerty Theresa Cori at the University of Prague. Some were the first women to graduate from their institutions, such as Nora Barney, a civil engineer from Cornell University, or Florence Bascom, the first female doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. Contributors to home economics, such as Fannie Farmer, are treated as are popular nature writers. Minority women are included: Sophie Aberle, a Native American, and Katherine Dunham and Zora Neale Hurston, African Americans, all of whom were anthropologists.
The introduction is a historical overview of the professional opportunities that were open to female scientists in the nineteenth and first half of the twentieth centuries. For many, government agencies offered employment. Each entry includes the birth and (when appropriate) death dates of the subject, as well as educational background and employment history. The accompanying essay of several paragraphs to a page describes achievements and major contributions to her particular field. Closing each entry is a bibliography of other sources in which the subject can be found. Black-and-white photographs are provided for about 45 of the women.
When this work was compared with other sources, such as Women in Science (MIT Press, 1986) or Women in Chemistry and Physics [RBB Ap 15 94], there was not much duplication. Women in Chemistry and Physics, for example, treats only 75 women and they are not all Americans. American Women in Science is a unique reference source that highlights many women who have been neglected in other biographical sources. It is highly recommended for academic, public, and secondary school libraries.
