Super Women In Science, by Kelly Di Domenico

Super Women In Science, by Kelly Di Domenico. Second Story Press. 2002



In one way I find the title of this book unfortunate. "Super women" implies that the women in this book all had "super powers" that mere mortal women could never hope to aspire to. And that of course is wrong. The "super" part of the title is that these women all had an interest in some aspect of science, at a time when they were thought of as second class citizens whose only function in life was to take care of the home and have babies, and any woman who tried to get out of that sphere faced the wrath of both men and women, who wanted women to keep to their place. It takes a lot of courage to stand up for yourself in that way.

Biographies in this book, suitable for children and teens, I think, are:

Hypatia (355 - 415) - a mathematician
Mary Anning (1799 - 1847) - fossil discoverer
Harriet Brooks Pilcher (1876 - 1933) - nuclear physicist
Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1906 - 1972) - theoretical physicist
Rachel Carson (1907 - 1963) - marine biologist and nature writer
Chien-Shiung Wu (1912 - 1997) - physicist
Rosalind Franklin (1920 - 1958) - biophysicist
Birute Galdikas (1946 - ) primatologist, conservationist, ethologist, and author
Catherine Hickson (1955 - ) - volcanologist
Mae Jemison (1956 - ) - astronaut