AWM Book Review

Women Changing Science: Voices from a Field in Transition

Mary Morse, Insight Books/Plenum Press, New York 1995. xi+291pp. ISBN 0-306-45081-X (cloth). $27.95.

From: AWM Newsletter, September/October 1996.

Reviewed by: Marge Murray, Book Review Editor, Department of Mathematics, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24061-0123; email: murray@calvin.math.vt.edu.

In this book, Mary Morse, a freelance writer from Minneapolis who contributes frequently to Utne Reader, presents her observations of the role played by the increasing numbers of women who have joined the scientific workforce in recent years. The book is based on an admittedly non-random sample of women scientists, drawn for the most part from the large pool of subscribers to several internet discussion lists on gender and science, including WISENET (Women In Science and Engineering NETwork), FIST (Feminism In/and Science and Technology), Systers (a list for women in computing), and others. Morse has apparently chosen a sample of women scientists who identify more strongly with feminism and have a greater awareness of feminist scholarship than would be found in a more randomized sample of women scientists. As a result, the characterizations of women in science that emerge from this book cannot be seen as generic, but rather as representative of a particular, but highly significant, subset of the community.

Morse argues in the Introduction that her position as a "science outsider" enables her to bring "a measure of openness" and "few preconceived notions" to the problem of characterizing women's experiences in contemporary science. She tries to touch upon many aspects of this huge subject, and with her "outsider's openness," the book seems unfocused, and reads a bit like a succession of interesting but tenuously-connected magazine articles. Nevertheless, there is much in these pages that is of interest.

In her first chapter, "From Isaac Newton to Ecofeminism: Bringing Women's Relevance to Science," she addresses the question of whether science, being "historically a male business," is an activity that is relevant or meaningful to women's lives. She begins by discussing many of the academic contributors to the feminist critique of science. I found this a somewhat unusual beginning, as she begins not with an approach to science or scientists, but rather from a critical point of view. She offers a clear and succinct description of contemporary feminist theorizing about science, focusing upon the assertion that "science has neglected the female". Offering some evidence for this assertion, Morse devotes considerable attention to the state of medical research, in which, until quite recently, processes of human health and disease were studied almost exclusively in the male. She raises a good many interesting issues concerning the relation between gender and science, none of them pursued in much depth.

The second chapter, "Women's Scientific Training and its Outcomes: All Dressed Up in Lab Coats and Nowhere to Go?" makes an abrupt shift. In rapid succession, she addresses the questions of why women become scientists; women's precollege educational experiences with science; and advanced science education at the undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral level. The positive and negative effects of social pressure, role modeling, popular culture, affirmative action, and the competing claims of marriage and family, are all touched upon very briefly in this whirlwind tour of the path that leads some women from childhood to the brink of a career in science. A lengthy, concluding section introduces the sobering realities of the scientific and technical job market of the 1990s. These realities are not specific to women, but have a profound effect on the possibility of women's making continued gains in the scientific workforce.

Chapters 3 and 4 are concerned with the working styles of women scientists, and the possible changes that could be made in the scientific workplace that might make it more conducive to women's productivity and success. Morse discusses at some length the dichotomy in which 'competition' and 'intimidation' are seen as male and 'cooperation' and 'intuition' are seen as female. At times the dichotomy is drawn a bit too strongly, and at times I longed for a somewhat deeper analysis of the issues involved. At one point, for example, Morse seems on the verge of saying that as women become scientists in increasing numbers, they will make science a more ethical enterprise --- an assertion that I find it difficult to accept uncritically.

Chapters 5, 6, and 7 are devoted to brief interviews with women scientists. In Chapter 5, "Youth Leads the Way," she interviews young women scientists whom Morse sees as representative of the leadership of the next generation. Chapter 6, "Purse Strings and Politics," comprises interviews with women who hold positions of power and influence in government and nonprofit organizations. In Chapter 7, "A Brave New World," we hear from accomplished women scientists who share their vision of science in the future. It is interesting, of course, to hear the actual "voices from a field in transition," but the interviews are presented without analysis, synthesis, or even much commentary.

Synthesis is reserved for the brief concluding chapter, which consists of a set of policy recommendations that reflect the collective views of the author and her interviewees as to the changes that must be made to make science more hospitable to women. It is hard to disagree with most of the recommendations, but at the same time no suggestions are made as to how they might be effectively implemented. Many of them seem to require a radical change in social values; for example:

Girls who manage to be academic achievers must not be ridiculed by their peers or ignored by their communities....The emphasis on athletic achievement should be extended to academics....Schools should ensure budget equity for extracurricular academic activities such as debate or biology club, by bringing their budgets in line with sports budgets... (p. 266)

While these kinds of changes are greatly to be desired, how are they to be achieved?

On balance, Women Changing Science is a serious, journalistic (but not scholarly) attempt to address issues of gender, science, and women's role in the scientific community. It remains for others to engage in a deeper analysis of the issues raised, and to strategize about the public policy changes that are needed to make the scientific world more humane and hospitable.