Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940

Winner of the Berkshire Conference of Women Historians Prize

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.

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.