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NWSA Journal 14.2 (2002) 195-199



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Book Review

Women, Science and Society:
The Crucial Union

Women Becoming Mathematicians:
Creating a Professional Identity in Post-World War II America


Women, Science and Society: The Crucial Union by Sue V. Rosser. New York: Teachers College Press, 2001, 166 pp., $50.00 hardcover, $22.95 paper.
Women Becoming Mathematicians: Creating a Professional Identity in Post-World War II America by Margaret A. M. Murray. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2000, 277 pp., $29.95 hardcover, $16.95 paper.

These two books form a study in contrasts. Sue Rosser's Women, Science and Society is sweeping in scope, Margaret Murray's Women Becoming Mathematicians is narrowly focused. The first is global, the second is local; the first is oriented toward the action of the collective while the second is oriented to the collective action of individuals. Rosser looks to the future while Murray looks in the past. Women, Science and Society demands global change through public action, Women Becoming Mathematicians shows us how private actions changed the world. Both books present a variety of feminist theories and neither book requires a particular [End Page 195] feminist theoretical perspective to be understood or even accepted by the reader. Rosser outlines a variety of theories while Murray's theory is more subsumed to the story. Both books are extraordinarily well referenced and are tied not by underlying theory or analysis, but by their content area. Examining the lives of women in science and mathematics provides a formidable challenge to the reader, especially if the reader has first-hand knowledge of both fields, because of the power of coming face to face with the gendered implications of our work.

Women, Science and Society is a sociopolitical statement ascribing great power to women scientists and calling for strong action by these women. Rosser makes her beliefs clear early in the book, writing, "by uniting our talents and perspectives, we can save science, other women who do not have the professional expertise to guide this research and its implementation, and ultimately ourselves" (8). The book begins by noting that there is a critical mass of women in the sciences, which makes change, heretofore impossible, now possible. Continuing, she reviews a variety of feminist theories followed by a discussion of science from a postcolonial feminist perspective. This information is further analyzed in a chapter on bio- and reproductive technologies. Rosser closes the book with three case studies that she feels illustrate her points. The book also contains a large bibliography on the topic of feminism and science which readers, particularly those scientists without a feminist background or feminists without a science background, will find useful.

Perhaps by the author's intent, it is not possible to read Women, Science and Society without developing a strong reaction to the material. Rosser challenges the basic principals of science. If one takes the extreme version of constructivist theories and compares that to the extreme versions of positivism (e.g., liberal feminism, etc.), one is confronted with the possibility of two very different sciences: does a galaxy exist prior to the astrophysicists identifying it or do the scientists create it by their identification?

While this would seem to be philosophically trivial, the outcome of these two worldviews cannot be underestimated; if things exist only when we construct them, science is a field of creation. If they exist and we find them, science is a field of discovery. Rosser does not answer this question, leaving the reader somewhat mystified as to what constitutes feminist science. Perhaps her non-answer is a reflection of our collective understanding of feminist science, and a positive characteristic of scientific thinking which values ambiguity over premature assertion.

Rosser does not advocate expelling science as we know it, but her text does lead the reader to question the most basic assumptions of scientific inquiry. One of the most striking issues that arises is that we should become closer to the objects of our study, even including them in...

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