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Margaret W. Rossiter

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Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 First Edition

by Professor Margaret W. Rossiter (Author)

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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.

ISBN-10

0801824435
ISBN-13

978-0801824432
Edition

First Edition
Publisher

The Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date

November 1, 1982
Language

English
Dimensions

7.87 x 0.59 x 9.84 inches
Print length

437 pages
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Margaret W. W. Rossiter
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"A splendid book... Rossiter's tone in recounting [the struggle of women scientists] is never strident. A clear enough case emerges from the sources that she skillfully weaves into a tapestry of social trends and individual experience." -- Alice Kimball Smith, New York Times Book Review

"Necessary reading for all who seek to understand the sexual politics of science today. It illuminates how gender has influenced the development of science in this country and how and why our cultural values have followed us into the laboratory." -- Judith Walzer Leavitt, Science

"Margaret Rossiter has given us a gripping, beautifully documented account of the struggles of early women scientists in America. It is a moving tribute to the efforts that paved the way for women scientists today." -- Women's Review of Books

"A seminal work of rich scholarly detail... It is a splendid and totally satisfying feast, whetting the appetite for the next volume." -- Nature

"Margaret Rossiter is certainly not the first to notice sexism in science, but she has made a convincing case for its blatancy. Faced with her evidence, no one can doubt that sexism was an accepted federal policy and a powerful force in the scientific community." -- Technology and Culture

"A record of hopes squelched, strategies thwarted, and uncomfortable compromises uneasily made... No one who values simple justice can read these pages without becoming furious." -- Ruth Schwartz Cowan, Journal of American History

"[A] fine and meticulously researched book... [which] should be obligatory reading for those interested in the relationship of women and professionalization in the 20th century." -- Regina Markell Morantz, JAMA

About the Author

Margaret W. Rossiter is the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science at Cornell University and editor of Isis and Osiris. Her book Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972 is also available from Johns Hopkins.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ The Johns Hopkins University Press; First Edition (November 1, 1982)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 437 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0801824435
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0801824432
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.8 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.87 x 0.59 x 9.84 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #2,510,502 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,857 in Women & Business (Books)
- #4,528 in Scientist Biographies
- #8,697 in History & Philosophy of Science (Books)

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M.Williams

Timely, important reading on women in science. Recommended.v

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2019

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This is very overdue information for the USA. Have a family member who is a woman scientist and she has had gender harassment since she entered the scientific field. An example is being locked out of HER office while the males in the dept. hold the weekly grad student meeting! I contacted Dr Rossiter who promptly answered me and provided the law that is in effect against gender harassment, departments, groups who take action against it. She had the same thing in 1960s and at the SAME university!
I bought her whole series of three books for my scientist who is working on very important stuff. Rossiters books open a big insight in today's situation for women in science. Very important reading. Highly recommended.

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Amazon Customer

Very Scholarly and Informative

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2020

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This is not 'fluf' writing. This book is very thorough and scholarly. You must be ready to get involved in the information that is found in this book, and not take to it too lightly.

Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2022

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I was eager to read this book, but the type is so small as to be illegible.

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K. Davis

Pioneering Scholarly Research Volume 1

Reviewed in the United States on March 26, 2013

When I read parts of this book for the first time in 1984, I learned of the existence and contributions of many women scientists. I read about the obstacles they faced (nepotism rules, a Civil Service system that allowed those hiring to give preference to men, etc) and about the settings where women were able to contribute to science (women's colleges, home economics departments, and laboratories, where low-paid assistants were needed). Most of this was new to me even though I had been a woman scientist for 15 years.

Recently I reread the book. This time I looked at the sources of information; they included obituaries, directories of scientists, unpublished manuscripts, contemporary journals, and oral histories. It seemed to me that Dr. Rossiter had done a unusually thorough search for information and used that information to provide strong scholarly support for her conclusions.

Dr. Rossiter has received recognition for the quality for her work. She was a McArthur fellow for five years beginning in 1989. In 2004 the History of Science Society named one of its prizes after her; it is callled the Margaret W. Rossiter History of Women in Science Prize.

I would rate this first volume of Margaret Rossiter's trilogy,Women in Science in America, as five stars for those with a scholarly interest in women's studies or the history of science. I think that those who have a general interest in women in science may want to skim over some details in Rossiter's books and read biographies of individual scientists such as the section on Maria Goeppert Mayer in Joan Dash's A Life of One's Own and two books about Barbara McClintock, A Tangled Field and A Feeling for the Organism. (All are currently available from Amazon.com)

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