Women Scientists

Reflections, Challenges, and Breaking Boundaries

Magdolna Hargittai

Contains portraits of sixty notable female scientists, including eight of the sixteen women Nobel prize winners.
Interview subjects come from a wide variety of scientific disciplines.
Covers a wide geographical scope.

Women Scientists

Reflections, Challenges, and Breaking Boundaries

Magdolna Hargittai

Description

Magdolna Hargittai uses over fifteen years of in-depth conversation with female physicists, chemists, biomedical researchers, and other scientists to form cohesive ideas on the state of the modern female scientist. The compilation, based on sixty conversations, examines unique challenges that women with serious scientific aspirations face. In addition to addressing challenges and the unjustifiable underrepresentation of women at the higher levels of academia, Hargittai takes a balanced approach by discussing how some of the most successful of these women have managed to obtain professional success and personal happiness.
Women Scientists portrays scientists from different backgrounds, different geographical regions-eighteen countries from four continents-and leaders from a variety of professional backgrounds, including eight Nobel laureate women. The book is divided into three sections: "Husband and Wife Teams," "Women at the Top," and "In High Positions." Hargittai uses her own experience to introduce her first section on the lives of prominent scientific couples and addresses the joys and disadvantages of husband and wife teams. The second section is a comprehensive exploration of the struggles and triumphs of "women at the top." Hargittai introduces women from countries where relatively little has been written about female scientists. The final section focuses on women scientists involved with science administration and leadership. Hargittai's biographical sketches role models for budding scientists. The book is a much needed account of female presence and influence in the sciences.

Women Scientists

Reflections, Challenges, and Breaking Boundaries

Magdolna Hargittai

Women Scientists

Reflections, Challenges, and Breaking Boundaries

Magdolna Hargittai

Author Information

Magdolna Hargittai is Research Professor at the Budapest University of Technology and Economics. She is a Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and of the Academia Europaea (London).

Women Scientists

Reflections, Challenges, and Breaking Boundaries

Magdolna Hargittai

Reviews and Awards

"Hargittai does an excellent job of presenting both the women's dedication and talents and their shortcomings. This book will be an inspiration for budding scientists. Recommended."--CHOICE

"The stories are upbeat and original...This book will be of interest to both upcoming and established women in science, their children and families, as well as historians."--MRS Bulletin

"The book fulfils the author's wish to show women scientists as they are and encourage others to follow and should prove valuable to all those interested in how women are progressing in fields formerly, and still often, deemed as 'masculine'."--Gender and History

"Altogether, the material is cleverly organised; celebrated scientists are presented alongside lesser-known researchers. Even regarding the most well-known women scientists, the author has managed to unearth enlightening new sources."--Isis

Women Scientists

Reflections, Challenges, and Breaking Boundaries

Magdolna Hargittai

From Our Blog

To be a mother and a scientist

Years ago, while researching my book Women Scientists, I asked famous women scientists to name the greatest challenge in their life. Almost without exception, they noted the difficulty of adjusting their family obligations and their work. Chemist Rita Cornforth, wife and colleague of the Nobel laureate John W. Cornforth, said: 'I found it easier to put chemistry out of my mind when I was at home than to put our children out of my mind when I was in the lab.'

Posted on March 19, 2018

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