Synopses & Reviews
Why are the fields of science and technology still considered to be predominantly male professions? The Madame Curie Complex moves beyond the most common explanationsandmdash;limited access to professional training, lack of resources, exclusion from social networks of menandmdash;to give historical context and unexpected revelations about women's contributions to the sciences. Exploring the lives of Jane Goodall, Rosalind Franklin, Rosalyn Yalow, Barbara McClintock, Rachel Carson, and the women of the Manhattan Project, Julie Des Jardins considers their personal and professional stories in relation to their male counterpartsandmdash;Albert Einstein, Robert Oppenheimer, Enrico Fermiandmdash;to demonstrate how the gendered culture of science molds the methods, structure, and experience of the work. With lively anecdotes and vivid detail, The Madame Curie Complex reveals how women scientists have often asked different questions, used different methods, come up with different explanations for phenomena in the natural world, and how they have forever transformed a scientist's role.
Julie Des Jardins, the author of Women and the Historical Enterprise in America, is a professor of history at Baruch College, CUNY.
Synopsis
The historian and author of Lillian Gilbreth examines the "Great Man" myth of science with profiles of women scientists from Marie Curie to Jane Goodall.
Why is science still considered to be predominantly male profession? In The Madame Curie Complex, Julie Des Jardin dismantles the myth of the lone male genius, reframing the history of science with revelations about women's substantial contributions to the field.
She explores the lives of some of the most famous female scientists, including Jane Goodall, the eminent primatologist; Rosalind Franklin, the chemist whose work anticipated the discovery of DNA's structure; Rosalyn Yalow, the Nobel Prize-winning physicist; and, of course, Marie Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning pioneer whose towering, mythical status has both empowered and stigmatized future generations of women considering a life in science.
With lively anecdotes and vivid detail, The Madame Curie Complex reveals how women scientists have changed the course of science--and the role of the scientist--throughout the twentieth century. They often asked different questions, used different methods, and came up with different, groundbreaking explanations for phenomena in the natural world.
Synopsis
The real-life stories behind the gendering of science.
About the Author
Julie Des Jardins teaches American history at Baruch College, CUNY, and writes on gender and American women. Previously, she was a lecturer at Harvard University, where she was awarded the Alan Heimert Prize for Seminar Teaching. Des Jardins has a Ph.D. in American history from Brown University and has taught the history of gender, race, and feminism since 2000.