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Women, Science, and Technology: A Reader in Feminist Science Studies, Mary Wyer, Mary Barbercheck, Donna Giesman, Hatice Örün Öztürk, and Marta Wayne, Eds. (Routledge, 2008, $49.95 paperback)
Does science have a gender bias? And if so, what are its implications? Such questions may not echo through most laboratories, but they trouble the editors of Women, Science, and Technology, who raise them to higher levels of consideration with their newly reissued anthology. With nuance and skill, the editors argue not only that scientific cultures have excluded women while privileging men, but that science itself has developed around an androcentric model that willingly or inadvertently compromises women’s—and society’s—health and well-being. Yet if the gates of scientific discovery are opened to include more women scientists and women’s perspectives, the editors suggest, both women and science will reap incredible rewards.
Issued nearly a decade after its first appearance, this second edition of Women, Science, and Technology seems no less relevant for its age. Seasoned by an additional ten years of classroom experience, the editors have revised and refined the volume with the stated goal of making it more approachable to readers unfamiliar with feminist science studies. They appear to have succeeded in this task. Articles cover a broad range of topics relevant to a general audience (from nuclear warfare to contraception), with intelligent and engaging section introductions guiding both veteran and unversed readers through the editors’ thesis. The volume makes a compelling case for the importance of feminist science studies, both for women scientists and for the world at large. |
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Who’s Afraid of Marie Curie? The Challenges Facing Women in Science and Technology, Linley Erin Hall (Seal Press, 2007, $15.95 paperback)
In this approachable volume, science writer Linley Erin Hall directs her journalistic acumen toward exploring the question of why women remain underrepresented in certain sectors of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). Interlacing references to previously published studies with interviews of ninety-four women, Hall explores the roadblocks women encounter throughout their educations and careers, from the K-12 classroom to academe, industry, and beyond. Her findings are informative, if unsurprising: women find success most easily with active mentors, engaging pedagogies, and supportive environments—components all-too-frequently absent from STEM cultures. Yet if these results are discouraging, they don’t deter Hall, who sees the opportunity to reform STEM so it offers “careers for people” of diverse backgrounds “rather than careers [only] for men.”
Hall’s interviews give voice to women’s experiences and bridge the gap between abstract observations about the challenges women face and the sometimes-painful realities that constitute their lives. Hall’s tone can tend toward the negative: as she admits, the book focuses on deterrents to women’s success. Nevertheless, Hall sees the opportunity for a genuine cultural shift spurred by mechanisms ranging from flexible work schedules to more appealing pedagogies. As Hall astutely points out, these changes would encourage students of both genders to persist and succeed in STEM. Concluding with specific suggestions for institutions, organizations, and individuals, Hall positions her volume as valuable reading for women hoping to succeed in science and for the educators, employers, and parents hoping to help them do so. |
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Unfinished Agendas: New and Continuing Challenges in Higher Education, Judith Glazer-Raymo, Ed. (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008, $25.00 paperback)
Revisiting the scene for women in academe almost a decade after Shattering the Myths (1999), Judith Glazer-Raymo has compiled a comprehensive volume on continuing gender challenges facing women in multiple sectors of higher education. Glazer-Raymo invited a diverse range of authors to explore how gender manifests across the academy, from faculty offices to trustee meetings and community college humanities departments to research universities’ science and engineering classrooms. The result is, as Glazer-Raymo terms it, an “intergenerational and interdisciplinary discourse on women in academe” that illuminates how far women have come since the 1972 passage of Title IX, and how far they have yet to go before reaching parity.
Through a variety of theoretical and methodological approaches, contributing authors provide critical evidence in support of the key thesis: gender matters, and it matters in clearly definable ways. In making this point, the volume balances compelling statistics with qualitative analyses that illuminate the complexity of academic life for women across disciplines and identities. The wide-ranging collection of in-depth articles should appeal to a broad audience of educators and administrators interested in the current state of gender in the academy. But Glazer-Raymo and her colleagues do not stop at describing the challenges: they push readers forward by identifying an agenda to alter both individual careers and the academic structures that house them. Their volume is essential reading for anyone seeking a comprehensive look at the “unfinished agendas” facing women in higher education.
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