Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present: An Index by Caroline L. Herzenberg, and: Women of Science, Technology, and Medicine: A Bibliography by Else Høyrup, and: Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century—a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography by Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie, and: The History of Women and Science, Health, and Technology: A Bibliographic Guide to the Professions and

Abstract

1088 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Women Scientists from Antiquity to the Present: An Index. By Caroline L. Herzenberg. West Cornwall, Conn.: Locust Hill Press (P.O. Box 260 06796), 1986. Pp. xxxix + 200. $30.00. Women of Science, Technology, and Medicine: A Bibliography. By Else Hpyrup. Roskilde: Roskilde University Library (P.O. Box 258, DK-4000 Roskilde, Denmark), 1987. Pp. viii + 132. Paper. Available from the author. Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century—a Biographical Dictionary with Annotated Bibliography. By Marilyn Bailey Ogilvie. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1986. Pp. xiii + 254; index. $25.00. The History of Women and Science, Health, and Technology: A Bibliographic Guide to the Professions and Disciplines. Edited by Susan E. Searing with Rima D. Apple. Madison: University of Wisconsin (Women’s Studies Librarian, 112A Memorial Library, 728 State Street, Mad­ ison, Wisconsin 53706), 1988. Pp. ii + 54. $2.50 (paper). Historians researching women mining engineers or other women technologists have been limited by available reference sources. Car­ oline Herzenberg, Else Hpyrup, Marilyn Ogilvie, and Susan Searing provide valuable works that will guide the researcher in the quest for information about women engineers as well as women in science. All four authors have similar goals—to provide the reader with biographical and/or bibliographical information. No author claims to have produced a comprehensive work: rather, three have chosen to provide a cross section of women in various disciplines from many historical periods. Geographic coverage is more limited since the majority of entries are from the Western tradition and many contem­ porary entries are American. Herzenberg, Hpyrup, and Ogilvie limited their search to a select list of sources, using conventional research strategies. All authors cited works from the Isis Critical Bibliography, while only Hpyrup uses Technology and Culture’s “Current Bibliography.” In addition, all rely on a variety of biographical dictionaries (Who’s Who, Poggendorff Dictionary of Scientific Biography, etc.) to identify and document the women selected. Herzenberg and Ogilvie also use secondary sources from the history of science, women’s studies, and history of technol­ ogy. Searing’s bibliography is based on collected bibliographies of the Women’s Caucus of the History of Science Society and additional research. Although similar in many aspects, the works differ in format and presentation of information. Hpyrup provides an alphabetical listing of selected women with bibliographic references that direct the reader to additional sources of information. She also includes a section listing articles about women in science, medicine, mathematics, and technol­ TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 1089 ogy. The section on technology is disappointingly only three-and-onehalf pages long. Ogilvie provides from one column to several pages of information about each woman. Scientists’ publications are also itemized. An index that lists entries alphabetically identifies the woman’s held, historic period, and nationality, which gives a quick reference source. Ogilvie’s efforts are centered on women in science and not technology; she includes only three women inventors in addition to several women in medicine. Herzenberg lists the women alphabetically, giving birth and death dates, nationalities, and a code that guides the reader to the sources. Her most useful feature is a detailed index that lists women by occupation, including aeronautical engineers, agricultural scientists, cartographers, chemical engineers, civil engineers, electronics engi­ neers, engineers, geochemists, hydrologists, inventors, mechanical engineers, metallurgists, mining engineers, petrologists, systems en­ gineers, and technologists. Searing’s bibliography is particularly good at identifying women and their work in applied science (petroleum geology, industrial chemistry). It also includes sections about reference works, home economics, education, and health and reproductive technologies. The section on technology covers five pages. Unlike the others, it is organized around topics rather than individual biography. All of the books are valuable, pioneering works that yield tantaliz­ ing threads. In her introductory essay, Herzenberg refers to two Babylonian chemical engineers who were in charge of perfume production. Was there a tradition of elite women chemical engineers that continued to surface periodically and of which Mary the Jewess in Alexandria is an example? Although promising, such speculations are based on preliminary work. The books also suggest a relative scarcity of women engaged in the most “male” technologies—mining, civil, or mechanical engineering. Are women less...