Author Description

Product Description This book critically examines the career development of female scientific pioneers. Drawing from existing biographical and ethnographical data, author Joyce Tang analyzes the life and career histories of ten extraordinary female scientists―Marie Curie, Irene Joliot-Curie, Margaret Mead, Barbara McClintock, Maria Goeppert-Meyer, Rachel Carson, Rita Levi-Montalcini, Dorothy Hodgkin, Rosalyn Yalow, and Fay Ajzenberg-Selove. The author explores the personal, political, cultural, and economic factors that led to the success of these women. Scientific Pioneers proposes that for a woman to be successful in science not only requires perseverance and talent, but also structural opportunities, institutional support, and conscious decision making.Scientific Pioneers is an important addition to the growing literature about women in science, the sociology of science, and the dynamics of discrimination. This analysis of female scientific pioneers is an invaluable resource for both public policy debates and research on inequality. Review....their lives and careers become the subject of a sociological analysis that highlights how the norms of the scientific community, specifically its emphasis on merit and the importance of gatekeepers (almost exclusively male) have been barriers to women's recognition....The author concludes with a chapter on what the future holds for women in science, granting that many of the institutional obstacles that discriminated against women have now been removed, although cultural and ideological forces that discriminate still remain. A scholarly book with an impressive bibliography, ample documentation, and a detailed index.Summing Up: HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. Lower-division undergraduates through graduate students. -- M.H. Chaplin, Wellesley College ― CHOICE About the Author Joyce Tang is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Queens College of the City University of New York. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology