Women and science : 17th century to present : pioneers, activists and protagonists

If women’s interest and participation in the advancement of science has a long history, the academic study of their contributions is a far more recent phenomenon, to be placed in the wake of “second wave” feminism in the 1970s and the advent of women’s studies which have, since then, given impetus to research on female figures in specific fields or, more generally speaking, on women’s battles to gain access to knowledge, education and recognition in the scientific world. These studies—while providing a useful insight into the contributions of a few more or less well-known figures—have mostly focused, however, on the obstacles that women have had to overcome in the field of education and employment or in their quest for acknowledgement by their male peers. The aim of this volume is to try and approach the issue from a different and more comprehensive point of view, taking into account not only the position of women in science, but also the link between women and science through the analysis of various kinds of discourse and representation such as the press, poetry, fiction, biographies and autobiographies or professional journals—including that of women themselves. The questions of the presentation or re(-)presentation of science by women are thus at the core of this study, as well as that of the portrayal and self-portrayal of women in the sciences (whether in the educational, or the professional field). A final part examines how women are represented in science fiction which, like science itself, has traditionally been a field dominated by men. Auto Didactism And The Construction Of Scientific Discourse In Early Modern England: Margaret Cavendish's And Anne Conway's Intellectual Bricolage / Sandrine Parageau -- Invisible Assistants And Translated Texts: D'arconville And Practical Chemistry In Enlightenment France / Margaret Carlyle -- Maria Sibylla Merian: The First Ecologist? / Kay Etheridge -- Anatomy Of The Female Angel Or Science At The Service Of Woman In Woman And Her Era By Eliza Farnham / Claire Sorin -- Promoting Eugenics And Maternalism: Women Doctors And Marriage Counselling In Weimar Germany / Melissa Kravetz -- Women And The Pursuit Of Scientific Knowledge In Mid-victorian Dublin / Clara Cullen -- Schools Of Their Own: The Ladies' Medical College And The London School Of Medicine For Women / Veronique Molinari Elizabeth Blackwell, The Singular Women Doctor: Representing And Locating The Pioneer Woman Physician In The Nineteenth Century / Helene Quanquin -- Representations Of Women In The History Of Science In France: Going Beyond Names Without Faces, Faces Without Accomplishments / Lindsay Blake Wilson -- The Male Tempo Of Engineering: Coeds Adapt To Georgia Tech / Amy Bix -- Women Of Science Fiction: Romantic Mythologies And Female Emancipation From John Keats To Dan Simmons / Caroline Bertoneche -- The Labours Of Omen Of Genius: Frankenstein, Fertility And The Female Scientist In The Work Of Alasdair Gray / David Leishman -- Impossible Dialogues?: Science In American Feminist Science Fiction Of The 1970s And 1980s / Donna Spalding Andreolle -- Women And Science In Japanese Anime: A Challenge To The Traditional Construction Of Female Identity / Yukihide Endo. Edited By Donna Spalding Andréolle And Véronique Molinari. Includes Bibliographical References. If women s interest and participation in the advancement of science has a long history, the academic study of their contributions is a far more recent phenomenon, to be placed in the wake of 'second wave' feminism in the 1970s and the advent of women s studies which have, since then, given impetus to research on female figures in specific fields or, more generally speaking, on women s battles to gain access to knowledge, education and recognition in the scientific world. These studies while providing a useful insight into the contributions of a few more or less well-known figures have mostly focused, however, on the obstacles that women have had to overcome in the field of education and employment or in their quest for acknowledgement by their male peers. The aim of this volume is to try and approach the issue from a different and more comprehensive point of view, taking into account not only the position of women in science, but also the link between women and science through the analysis of various kinds of discourse and representation such as the press, poetry, fiction, biographies and autobiographies or professional journals including that of women themselves. The questions of the presentation or re(-)presentation of science by women are thus at the core of this study, as well as that of the portrayal and self-portrayal of women in the sciences (whether in the educational, or the professional field). A final part examines how women are represented in science fiction which, like science itself, has traditionally been a field dominated by men.