Women's Science: Learning and Succeeding from the Margins

In both recent studies and popular media articles, the opportunities--or lack thereof--for women and girls in science and engineering have received increased attention, as policymakers, parents and educators have sought to close the gender gap in schools and workplaces. Eisenhart, a professor of education and anthropology at the University of Colorado, Boulder (and coauthor of Educated in Romance: Women, Achievement, and Campus Culture), and Finkel, a high school science teacher, provide a new perspective on the issue. Rather than look at research agencies and laboratory settings, where women are severely underrepresented, they focus on the ""margins"": a high school genetics class, an internship for engineers, an environmental action group and a nonprofit conservation agency. By studying these sectors, generally less well remunerated, they find a higher percentage of women doing science work, but they also discover numerous problems, such as a standard expectation for female scientists to ""act like men"" in order to succeed, and a false environment of gender neutrality. Even the women presented here who do prevail do so against discrimination and unwarranted obstacles. Beyond describing individual struggles, however, the authors expertly delve into the definition of science itself, and how science is presented in school as a male-driven construction. For those seeking to gain a fuller and more expansive understanding of women's place in the fields of science and engineering, this is an extraordinarily important work. (Dec.)