Women Changing Science Voices From A Field In Transition

by Morse, Mary

• ISBN13: 9780738206158
• ISBN10: 0738206156
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-10-19
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Women Changing Science: Voices from a Field in Transition explores the experiences of today's women in the natural and physical sciences. In interviews with women at all stages of their scientific careers, Ms. Mary Morse, a frequent contributor to Utne Reader magazine and a community activist, unearths a picture of science that rarely sees print: a field in upheaval, with female and male scientists doing their best to survive in rapidly shifting social and professional climates. Read the honest appraisals of the extraordinary women who are determined to define a new scientific culture. Step into a woman-owned engineering firm where employees are encouraged to bring their infants to work. Hear why a young female physician would jettison the entire residency process to foster safer, saner, and more effective medical training. Learn how a group of established women scientists and science policy makers succeeded, and about their predictions for women's impact on the field. The author and her subjects present meaningful solutions to the current dilemmas faced by scientists, including ways to redesign the scientific culture and workplace to foster success for women, men, and the scientific enterprise. Bound to spark a dialogue about how women will shape the future of western science, this book is eye-opening reading for anyone with an interest in the field. In an era when women are being encouraged to enter the sciences as never before, Women Changing Science sounds a warning to science students, science teachers, parents, legislators, health science educators, business people, and university administrators.

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(8)
Part I Women and the Scientific Enterprise
From Isaac Newton to Ecofeminism: Bringing Women's Relevance to Science	9	(26)
Science as a Male Pursuit	9	(3)
Feminism and the Feminist Critique of Science	12	(15)
Knowledge as Male	16	(2)
The Contextual Nature of Scientific Inquiry	18	(3)
The ``Difference'' Factor	21	(3)
Feminist Empiricism, Feminist Standpoint Theory, and Feminist Postmodernism	24	(3)
Is Science Relevant to Women?	27	(8)
Women's Health as a Scientific Indicator	28	(7)
Women's Scientific Training and Its Outcomes: All Dressed Up in Lab Coats and Nowhere To Go?	35	(36)
On Becoming a Scientist	35	(13)
The Early Educational Experience for Women Scientists	37	(2)
Life in Kindergarten through Twelve	39	(1)
Curricula and Camps, Programs and Pep Talks	40	(3)
Scientific Higher Education: The Apprenticeship Explained	43	(5)
Along the Way: The Social Influence	48	(15)
The Two-Body Problem: Married Scientists	52	(1)
Women Scientists in Popular Culture	53	(3)
Role Models	56	(4)
Affirmative Action: A Double-Edged Toehold	60	(3)
All Dressed Up in Lab Coats and Nowhere To Go: Today's Job Market for Scientists	63	(8)
Differences in the Lab: Women's Scientific Styles	71	(30)
Do Women and Men ``Do'' Science Differently?	73	(20)
Competition versus Cooperation	76	(7)
Intimidation	83	(7)
Intuition	90	(3)
Women and Ethics	93	(8)
Gender and the Tools of Destruction	95	(1)
Women, Science, and Environmental Degradation	96	(5)
Transforming the Scientific Workplace	101	(34)
Science as a Profession: From Pastime to Obession	101	(5)
Women, Children, Science Careers, and the Backlash: Who's To Blame, and What's To Fix	106	(9)
So, Where Is This Planet Exactly?	115	(20)
Breaking New Ground: Leaders in New Scientific Working Cultures	127	(2)
How Would Women Change the Workplace?	129	(6)
Part II Science on Women's Terms
Youth Leads the Way: Conversations with Young Women in the Sciences	135	(70)
Purse Strings and Politics: Interviews with Women in Science Policy	205	(22)
A Brave New World: Women Speak on the Future of Science	227	(38)
Women Changing Science	265	(10)
Science Education	266	(3)
Kindergarten through Twelve	266	(2)
Undergraduate Years	268	(1)
Graduate School	268	(1)
The Scientific Workplace	269	(2)
The Academic Workplace	269	(1)
Nonacademic Employment	270	(1)
Science Culture	271	(1)
The Values and Goals of Scientific Inquiry	272	(3)
Notes	275	(8)
Index	283