Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972

by Margaret W. Rossiter

Overview

Winner of the Pfizer Award for Outstanding Book in the History of Science

Margaret Rossiter's widely hailed Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 marked the beginning of a pioneering effort to interpret the history of American women scientists. That effort continues in this provocative sequel that covers the crucial years of World War II and beyond. Rossiter begins by showing how the acute labor shortage brought on by the war seemed to hold out new hope for women professionals, especially in the sciences. But the public posture of welcoming women into the scientific professions masked a deep-seated opposition to change. Rossiter proves that despite frustrating obstacles created by the patriarchal structure and values of universities, government, and industry, women scientists made genuine contributions to their fields, grew in professional stature, and laid the foundation for the breakthroughs that followed 1972.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801857119
Publisher:	Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication date:	09/29/1998
Series:	Women Scientists in America Series
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	624
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Margaret W. Rossiter is the Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science at Cornell University and former editor of Isis and Osiris. Her prize-winning books Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 and Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940–1972 are also published by Johns Hopkins. Professor Rossiter was a MacArthur Fellow from 1989 until 1994.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
List of Tables
Ackowledgments
Introduction
1. World War II: Opportunity Lost?
2. Postwar "Adjustment": Displacement and Demotion
3. "Scientific Womanpower": Ambivalent Encouragement
4. Graduate School: Record Numbers Despite It All
5. Growth, Segregation, and Statistically "Other"
6. Faculty at Major Universities: The Antinepotism Rules and the Grateful Few
7. Resentful Research Associates: Marriage and Marginality
8. Protecting Home Economics, the Women's Field
9. Surviving in "Siberia"
10. Majors, Money, and Men at the Women's Colleges
11. Nonporfit Institutions and Self-Employment: A Second Chance
12. Corporate Employment: Research and Customer Service
13. Governmental "Showcase"?
14. Invisbility and Underrecognition: Less and Less of More and More
15. Women's Clubs and Prizes: Partial Palliatives
16. The Path to Liberation: Consciousness Raised, Legislation Enacted
List of Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliographical Essay
Index

Editorial Reviews

A detailed account of the status of women scientists during an important transition period . . . Offering valuable information on women scientists and suggesting additional research opportunities, Rossiter's second volume stands as a significant contribution to both women's history and the history of American science.
—George E. Webb, American Historical Review

Highly readable and exquisitely informative. Rossiter's documentation of this gloomy chapter in the history of women striving to make a place for themselves in science serves as a pungent antidote for questions concerning the fairness of affirmative action.
—Journal of American History

What we have here is a remarkable example of historian as detective . . . The attention Rossiter gives to identifying individuals and the details she provides about marriage, barriers . . . underrecognition, disappointments, and—yes—real accomplishments and rewards breathes life into her frequently poignant account.
—Science

Rossiter's resourcefulness and thoroughness yield a cornucopia of information . . . [Her] formidable achievement is to provide a full, complex picture of the marginalisation of American women scientists in this era . . . I recommend this book to anyone involved in science: the questions about the sexual politics of science it tackles and provokes are too important to be ignored.
—New Scientist

Rossiter marshals an astounding array of evidence to assess women's work, roles, productivity, and advances as American scientists. Not content to study only those women who held collegiate faculty posts, she also examines female scientists in government, industry, and self-employment, devoting strong chapters to each . . . Most impressive in its careful, scientific approach to data that others have previously offered, analyzed, and packaged.
—Harvard Educational Review

An engaging and eye-opening book . . . This is a story not only of science, but of the resolution and courage of women scientists who struggled to continue in their professions even when confronted repeatedly with adversity.
—Chemical and Engineering News

From the Publisher

Rossiter's resourcefulness and thoroughness yield a cornucopia of information . . . [Her] formidable achievement is to provide a full, complex picture of the marginalisation of American women scientists in this era . . . I recommend this book to anyone involved in science: the questions about the sexual politics of science it tackles and provokes are too important to be ignored.

New Scientist

Highly readable and exquisitely informative. Rossiter's documentation of this gloomy chapter in the history of women striving to make a place for themselves in science serves as a pungent antidote for questions concerning the fairness of affirmative action.

Journal of American History

A detailed account of the status of women scientists during an important transition period . . . Offering valuable information on women scientists and suggesting additional research opportunities, Rossiter's second volume stands as a significant contribution to both women's history and the history of American science.

American Historical Review - George E. Webb

An engaging and eye-opening book . . . This is a story not only of science, but of the resolution and courage of women scientists who struggled to continue in their professions even when confronted repeatedly with adversity.

Chemical and Engineering News

Rossiter marshals an astounding array of evidence to assess women's work, roles, productivity, and advances as American scientists. Not content to study only those women who held collegiate faculty posts, she also examines female scientists in government, industry, and self-employment, devoting strong chapters to each . . . Most impressive in its careful, scientific approach to data that others have previously offered, analyzed, and packaged.

Harvard Educational Review

What we have here is a remarkable example of historian as detective . . . The attention Rossiter gives to identifying individuals and the details she provides about marriage, barriers . . . underrecognition, disappointments, and—yes—real accomplishments and rewards breathes life into her frequently poignant account.

Science

"Rossiter's resourcefulness and thoroughness yield a cornucopia of information... [Her] formidable achievement is to provide a full, complex picture of the marginalisation of American women scientists in this era... I recommend this book to anyone involved in science: the questions about the sexual politics of science it tackles and provokes are too important to be ignored."

New Scientist

"What we have here is a remarkable example of historian as detective... The attention Rossiter gives to identifying individuals and the details she provides about marriage, barriers... underrecognition, disappointments, and—yes—real accomplishments and rewards breathes life into her frequently poignant account."

Science

A detailed account of the status of women scientists during an important transition period... Offering valuable information on women scientists and suggesting additional research opportunities, Rossiter's second volume stands as a significant contribution to both women's history and the history of American science.

— George E. Webb

American Historical Review

A detailed account of the status of women scientists during an important transition period. -- American Historical Review

George E. Webb

This sequel to Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940 (LJ 10/15/82) documents a period that saw the increased male dominance of science despite growing numbers of qualified, highly trained professional women. In all areas-from memberships (not to mention the societal governing units) in professional societies, to representation on faculties, to fellowship/postdoctoral awards, etc.-women were sadly underrepresented. And those few who did achieve positions in the higher strata were generally paid less, given less prestigious titles, and otherwise underappreciated. Rossiter meticulously presents her data, sector by sector-formerly "female fields," academia, corporate business, and so on-up to the years 1968-72, which saw the women's revolt and the passage of meaningful equal-opportunity legislation. An eye-opening book; highly recommended.-Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.

Library Journal

Rossiter (history of science, Cornell U.) chronicles the struggles and achievements of women in science and scientific academia between 1940 and 1972, showing how women scientists contributed to the war effort, and detailing the postwar period, in which women scientists were told to accept demotion cheerfully. Includes b&w photos. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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