BOOKS
Récognition Rare for Women Scientists Reviewed by Betsy Ancker-Johnson m i f ir hen I first held in my hands % ^ L / "Nobel Prize Women in Sci• • ence: Their Lives, Struggles and Momentous Discoveries," I wondered: Will this be a superficial glimpse of outstanding women, a so-called timely book with a "message" about women suffering outrageous prejudice? The fact that the dust jacket identified the author, Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, as a former newspaper reporter did nothing to bolster my expectations. However, the next phrase in her short biographical sketchformer writer-editor on physics for the Encyclopaedia Britannica—raised my hopes. To my surprise, this work is anything but superficial, and the "outrageous prejudice" is so grounded in fact mat it can't be denied. The book examines the lives of the nine women Nobel Prize winners, four other women whose work was indispensable for the Nobel Prizes their collaborators won, and a woman who is recognized as a world-class mathematician. (The Nobel Prize is not awarded for mathematics.) It begins with the question, "Why so few?" That same question was uppermost in the minds of the members of the National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Women in Science & Engineering when they compiled two recent reports: "Women Scientists and Engineers Employed in Industry: Why So Few?" (1994) and "Women in Science and Engineering: Increasing Their Numbers" (1991). The women McGrayne writes about were born between 1867 and 1943. Yet many of the barriers they encountered to practicing science and engineering are virtually the same for women today. Certainly, it's easier than ever for women to get a first-rate science education today, though still harder than for men. The gender discrepancy begins early on, because some teachers are reluctant to encourage girls to learn mathematics, physics, and chemistry. Nevertheless, a motivated young woman faces today nothing like the closed doors to universities that confronted eminent mathematician Emmy Noether (1882-1935) or dis-
portant habilitation lectures ever, for it laid the foundation for quantum physics. Modern algebra is also based on Noether's innovations. In 1908, when Meitner was "allowed" to work with Otto Hahn at Germany's Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, a women's toilet was installed. (During the year this reviewer started to work on her doctoral thesis at the University of Tubingen's Physics Institute in Germany, a women's toilet was installed.) In 1912, Meitner was appointed to a university position and thereafter suffered less overt discrimination than Noether. Still, her greatest contributions—the explanation for nuclear fission and the disNobelist Marie Curie in her Paris lab. covery of the element protactinium— were published in papers that named Hahn as the senior author. Hahn reThe Outrageous prejudice' ceived the 1944 Nobel Prize for Chemistry; in his Nobel lecture, he didn't even that has allowed so few acknowledge Meitner's indispensable women to win Nobel Prizes role. Great physicists of the day, including Albert Einstein and Wolfgang Pauli, in science may have abated knew she was the leader, and nearly all physicists now believe Meitner should but hasn't disappeared have received the prize for physics. Not being treated equally with men in the job market is something women still "Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their experience. But the market was grim for Lives, Struggles and Momentous Disthe 14 women profiled in McGrayne's coveries/' by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne, Carol Publishing Co., 600 Madison Ave., book—none had any help finding a payNew York, N.Y. 10022,1993, 419 pages, ing job when she completed her training. The author tells how biochemist Ger$26.95 trude Elion, who shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1988, spent nearly a decade in secretarial school and tinguished physicist Lise Meitner (1878- jobs irrelevant to her science career before landing a position as a research chemist in 1968). McGrayne notes French mathematician 1944. Yet Elion managed to synthesize Jean Dieudonné's comment in 1983 in the two effective cancer drugs by age 32. Simintroduction to Noether's collected works: ilarly, biochemist Gerty Radnitz Cori "She was ... one of the greatest mathe- wasn't offered a professorship until she maticians (male or female) of the twenti- was within months of winning, with her eth century." Due to gender discrimina- husband, the Nobel Prize for Physiology tion, Noether was always in financial or Medicine in 1947. straits, even though she was generally Some of the women, principally Nobel recognized as the center of mathematical Laureates Cori, Marie Sklodowska Curie, activity at the University of Gôttingen in and Irène Joliet Curie, were married to Germany and received international rec- outstanding scientists and, through their ognition in 1932. Her first lecture as a husbands' positions, were able to do r e faculty member—without pay—was 13 search, but always without pay. Matheyears after she received her doctoral de- matical physicist Maria Goeppert Mayer gree. It was surely one of the most im- was "allowed" to work full time at Johns APRIL 11,1994 C&EN 41
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BOOKS Hopkins University and later at Columbia University because her husband was a professor at these institutions. However, she was neither paid nor listed in the universities' catalogs. In 1960, 10 years after she did the work that won her a share in the physics prize in 1963, Mayer, then 53 years old, was finally hired as a full professor by the University of California, La Jolla. Geneticist Barbara McClintock (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1983) was asked to recommend colleagues—male, of course—to Harvard, Yale, and other outstanding schools for "jobs that would have been just right for me, with my experience," she told McGrayne. McClintock couldn't land one of those jobs herself. Although World War Π opened up the job market for women scientists and engineers, the NRC report in 1991 never theless concluded: "In general, women scientists and engineers are more likely to be underemployed or underutilized than their male counterparts. ... They are promoted more slowly. In academe, they are more likely to be in the lower faculty ranks and less likely to be ten ured." And the 1994 report notes: "Lim ited access is the first hurdle faced by women seeking industrial jobs in science and engineering." Both NRC reports note that women as a whole receive lower pay than their male peers, even when age is taken into account. Perhaps even more distressing is what many encounter on the job. The 1994 NRC document lists paternalism, different standards for judging the work of men and women, sexual harassment, allegations of reverse discrimination (charges that men are penalized because of special incentives and programs for women), inequitable work assignments, and more difficulty than men in moving into management, among others. McClintock suffered similar insults. A leading molecular biologist called her "just an old bag who'd been hanging around ... for years," notes McGrayne. Many believe that x-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin's work was indispens able for the Nobel Prize awarded to Fran cis Crick, James D. Watson, and Maurice H F. Wilkins, but Franklin's work wasn't cited among the 98 references in the prize winners' Nobel lectures. Indeed, Watson disparaged her in "The Double Helix," his book for the lay public. All of the 14 women had male col leagues who highly valued their work, but all too often the men did so only lat-
er in the women's lives. Nearly all—a notable exception is physical chemist Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1964)—were criticized for being tough or combatative or too persistent, traits essential to their success and disregarded in men. Nuclear physicist Chien-Shiung Wu is known not only for her parity experiments, among other seminal work, but also for her fierce competitiveness. In someone as slight (and beautiful) as she, this trait has been widely noticed and criticized, but would it be in any man? All 14 women overcame enormous stress, much of which resulted from not being taken seriously. More stress was generated by being at the wrong end of the microscope—being subjected to constant scrutiny because of being conspicuous. Motherhood escalated the stress— for some women being pregnant precipitated a crisis. Rosalyn Sussman Yallow, who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1977, waited until she was very well established on the job before she successfully defied the rule that said she
had to resign during the fifth month of her pregnancy. (Her work was such important input to so many other researchers that the administration didn't dare enforce the rule.) Marie Curie (who won the Nobel Prize twice—for physics in 1903 and for chemistry in 1911) was widowed when her daughters were 16 months and eight years old and raised them alone. Her daughter Irène Joliet-Curie (Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1935), endured financial strains when her two children were young. Juggling demanding work and family responsibilities is no less a feat for women today, as the NRC reports make amply clear. The book doesn't gloss over any warts on these great scientists. For example, it tells how neuroembryologist Rita LeviMontalcini (Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1986), though very helpful to her students and people in need, was viewed by some peers as failing to give credit where due. Such an omission seems doubly damning when perpetrated by a woman, given that women have so often themselves been slighted in this way.
McGrayne's book lives up to its subtitle. The women's momentous discoveries are lucidly explained, even though a great breadth of science and engineering is involved. The author is a good storyteller, and she clearly went to great pains to delve deeply into these 14 lives. Her list of references is impressive, but even more so are the large number of interviews she conducted, especially with those who could give firsthand information about the women and the significance of their work. I found very few errors, all unimportant. However, I believe McGrayne should have gone one step further in documentation—there is only one citation in the book's 400 pages, although all the author's sources are listed for each biography. Perhaps McGrayne will remedy this omission in a subsequent edition—and I hope this book attains many. How hard these women worked, driven in part by the need to prove they were highly competent. But the story is not much different today for women in leadership in research or technology. As the
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BOOKS first women to be or to do such-and-such Biomarkers of Human Exposure to Pesti Cluster Ions: Wiley Series in Ion Chem istry and Physics. Cheuk-Yiu Ng, Tocides. ACS Symposium Series 542. Mah become history, I hope the barriers for mas Baer, Ivan Powis, editors, xiv + moud A. Saleh, Jerry N. Blancato, women will also. The sooner the better! 479 pages. John Wiley & Sons, 605 Betsy Ancker-Johnson is vice president Charles H. Nauman, editors, χ + 326 Third Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016. pages. American Chemical Society, of General Motors for environmental activ 1993. $104. 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, D.C. ities (retired); a fellow of the American 20036. 1993. $79.95. Combustion Ash/Residue Management: Physical Society, the Institute of Electrical An Engineering Perspective. Richard & Electronics Engineers, and the AmericanThe Brandon Guide to Custom Chemical W. Goodwin, xiv + 85 pages. Noyes Synthesis Services—North America. Association for the Advancement of Sci Publications, 120 Mill Rd., Park Ridge, ence; and a member of the National Acade 3rd Ed. Brandon Associates. 295 pages. N.J. 07656. 1993. $45. Brandon Associates, P.O. Box 1244, Mer my of Engineering. • rimack, N.H. 03054-1244. 1993. $190. Corrosion Inhibitors: An Industrial Guide. Ernest W. Flick, xvii + 341 pag Chaos and Order: The Complex Struc Advances in Chemical Physics. Vol. 86.1. es. Noyes Publications, 120 Mill Rd., ture of Living Systems. F. Cramer, xiv Prigogine, Stuart A. Rice, editors, ix + Park Ridge, N.J. 07656. 1993. $54. + 249 pages. VCH Publishers, Distribu 433 pages. John Wiley & Sons, 605 Third tion Center, 303 Northwest 12th Ave., Ave., New York, N.Y. 10016.1993. $125. Deerfield Beach, Fla. 33442-1705. 1993. Environmental Chemistry of Lakes and Reservoirs. Advances in Chemistry Se $30. ries 237. Lawrence A. Baker, editor, xii Annual Review of Energy and the Envi + 627 pages. American Chemical Soci ronment. Vol. 18. Robert H. Socolow, Chemical Kinetics and Process Dynamics ety, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washington, Dennis Anderson, John Harte, editors, in Aquatic Systems. Patrick L. BrenzonD.C. 20036. 1994. $149.95. ix + 692 pages. Annual Reviews Inc., ik. xxii + 754 pages. Lewis Publishers, 4130 El Camino Way, Palo Alto, Calif. 2000 Corporate Blvd., N.W., Boca Raton, Environmental Geochemistry of Sulfide 94306. 1993. $68 U.S., $73 elsewhere. Fla. 33431.1994. $69.50. Oxidation. ACS Symposium Series 550. Charles N. Alpers, David W. Blowes, edi Bioanalytical Instrumentation. Clarence Chemical Nomenclatures and the Com tors, xiv + 681 pages. American Chemical H. Suelter, editor, xiii + 324 pages. John puter. D. J. Polton. xii + 264 pages. John Society, 1155—16th St., N.W., Washing Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New Wiley & Sons, 605 Third Ave., New ton, D.C. 20036.1994. $139.95. Π York, N.Y. 10016. 1993. $95. York, N.Y. 10016. 1994. $74.95.
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