Women in Science: Options and Access ed. by Éva Vámos

Abstract

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1085 lives bear scrutiny for their revelations about concerns and habits that continue to affect women today. This volume should be part of any course on the history of science as well as the more obvious women’s studies courses. Audrey B. Davis Dr. Davis is curator in the Division of Medical Sciences at the National Museum of American History. Women in Science: Options and Access. Edited by £va Vamos. Budapest: National Museum of Science and Technology, 1987. Pp. iii + 249; references. Paper. This volume contains eleven papers presented ata Unesco-sponsored session at the XVIIth International Congress of History of Science at Berkeley in 1985. The contributors, representing several European countries, Canada, the United States, India, and China, dealt with a wide range ofsubjects, including science, gender, and teaching; the his­ torical process of feminization of the intellectual professions in Hun­ gary from 1880 to 1980; introductory botany books and women; and women scientists in China. Of more interest to the readers of Technology and Culture are five articles dealing, in whole or in part, with the topic of technology and women. Of particular importance are the excellent articles by Judit Brody, Daryl Hafter, Joan Mason, and Madhuri Seth. Brody explores “Patterns of Patents: Early British Inventions by Women” in 1635— 1852. Hafter writes about “Women’s Use of Technology in 18thCentury Rouennaise Guilds,” concentrating on the experiences of linendrapers of used clothing. Mason’s article concerns “Changing Attitudes to Women in Science and Technology in Great Britain,” and Seth discusses the Unesco workshop on women, technology, and innovations. These papers are important additions to the growing literature on the history of women and technology and to contempo­ rary perspectives on this subject. Brigitte Hoppe’s overlong paper “Educational Standards and the Emergence of Women in Science in Former Germany” also contains some useful data on women and technology. Unfortunately, the volume’s usefulness is considerably diminished by the low number of copies printed—200 copies of the proceedings of an international conference are not likely to satisfy demands by scholars interested in the subject. In addition, the editor’s laissez-faire attitude lowered the quality of the book. The papers are uneven in quality. While the preface states that “the papers published in this volume contain the unaltered texts sent by the authors,” the editor should have exercised her authority to impose homogeneity on the 1086 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE length, style, and citations of the various texts. Quaint expressions may be charming in oral presentations, but they put a non-English author at a disadvantage in the published version! If Unesco continues to sponsor other conferences and underwrite the publication of their proceedings, it is only fair to the organizers, authors, and readers to print a sufficiently large number of copies to satisfy the demand for such a volume. It is even more important to pro­ duce a book that will withstand multiple readings and not fall apart half­ way through the first one. Hungary isjustly famous for its high-quality art books. Couldn’t the same technology have been used for publishing this much-needed volume on women, science, and technology? Marianne G. Ainley Dr. Ainley, a historian of science, teaches a course at the Simone de Beauvoir Institute, Concordia University, on “Women, Science, and Technology: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives.” She has published papers on the professionalization of science, history of ornithology, and women scientists. Her forthcoming works include a biography of Dr. William Rowan and an edited volume on Canadian women in science, technology, and medicine. Her current research project is an investigation of the history of Canadian women and scientific work. Women, Work, and Technology: Transformations. Edited by Barbara Wright. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987. Pp. viii + 387; tables, notes, bibliography, index. $32.00 (cloth); $13.50 (paper). This book, which grew out of a conference in 1984 at the University of Connecticut, joins a lengthening shelf of collected essays—notably the collections edited by Martha Moore Trescott (1979), Joan Roth­ schild (1981), Jan Zimmerman (1983), and Wendy Faulkner and Erik Arnold (1985)—that variously treat the interrelations ofwomen, work, and technology. In her introduction to...