Customer Reviews

Athena Unbound: The Advancement of Women in Science and Technology

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
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I read this book with tremendous interest. The stories it contains resonated in me or seemed to fit friends and colleagues. I have given Athena Unbound to family members upon graduation (from engineering school) and to my own women Chemistry students for graduation. I think it is important for my students to know what problems may lie before them and how they may be side-stepped. This book does a great job of outlining what these problems may be. Science is still a man's world. Forewarned is forearmed!

This book is one of the best books I have read on the subject of women in science. It will appeal to the general public, who tire quickly of statistic upon statistic. Instead, this book gives a broad overview of the gender issues surrounding science and approached to resolve these issues. Should be required reading in any gender or science history class, I think, though the focus is on contemporary issues not historical documentation.

I probably have read every book on women in science for the last thirty years or so, and I regret that so many are data-rich to the point of unreadability. Athena Unbound is a refreshing exception; it delves into situations of women who marry and have children, situations of women whose mentors do not mentor them, and many other difficulties women experience when trying to become and stay scientists. I read this one all the way through in one sitting, then read it again slower to savor all of its insights. I recommend it very highly, up there with the older but still zingy Vivian Gornick, Women in Science.

I picked this book for my engineering ethics class thinking how great it would be to read about the experience of other females in engineering. To my dismay the book was slow and repetitive. The books studies white American women in science. The data through out the book is presented in a rough research paper like format. This is not a peasant to read book. If you can identify with white American women in the scientific field, then read this book. Otherwise the focus of this book is too narrow and the authors of the book does not present any practical solutions to the problems encountered by women in the scientific field.