Women Scientists: Hidden in History

Women Scientists: Hidden in History is part of Crabtree’s new series “Hidden History”. The six books in the series are written by four different writers but have a consistent format and presentation. Organized into chapters by geographic locations – Europe, Asia and Australia, the Americas, and Africa, Women Scientists” is the only book in the series that specifically includes Australia.

Each book begins with a chapter titled “History’s Hidden Heroines” that gives context to the particular group of women featured in the book and explains why we don’t know more about women’s achievements.

So, Why Can’t We Read All About It?
In many cultures throughout history, women were leaders, healers, astronomers, and more. Many of these women were well known and respected in their own time. Others did not have power and were not seen as important. Many of their stories are lost because they were not recorded, or written down. About 3,200 BCE, people started recording history with a system of writing called cuneiform. We know this because archaeologists have discovered ancient objects marked with this ancient writing.

Women Scientists is the only book in the series that highlights the contributions of a woman from Australia.

Ruby Payne-Scott, Making Waves in Australia
Few people in the world took radio astronomy seriously until the 1940s. Australia’s Ruby Payne-Scott was one of the first scientists – and the only woman – to realize that this new science was the future of astronomy. (p. 26)

A text box titled “HIDDEN HISTORY” highlights some of the discrimination experienced by women.

No Work for the Mrs.
When Ruby married in 1944, she had to keep it a secret. Women were expected to resign from government work as soon as they married. Ruby kept her ring on a chain around her neck and hid her marriage for two years so she could continue to work. She was forced to leave for good when she became pregnant with her first child. (p. 29)

Women Scientists also includes women from a broad range of time periods. For example, Tapputi-Belatekallim, the first recorded chemist, lived about 1200 BCE. Millennia later, Wangari Maathai was born in a small village in Kenya in 1940. She became the first woman in East and Central Africa to earn a PhD, eventually becoming “assistant minister of the environment, natural resources, and wildlife department. She continued to fight for the environment and to work for women’s rights until she died in 2011.” (p. 45)

The information in Women Scientists is presented in bite-size chunks, easily read by young students. The simple graphic illustrations are likely to remind students of graphic novels.

There is a short glossary, an index, and a list of additional resources “about women who broke the rules and changed the world”. Women Scientists provides a rich wealth of information that is unlikely to duplicate anything you already have on your library shelves.