I recently read The Madame Curie Complex: The Hidden History of Women in Science by Julie Des Jardins. The book discusses prominent female scientists, from the Nobel Prize-winning Marie Curie to Rosalind Franklin –- the brilliant scientist largely passed over for her work uncovering the structure of DNA, to Lillian Gilbreth – engineer, psychologist, and mother of twelve.
The Madame Curie Complex introduces the reader to female scientists, all who have made important contributions to the field, and some that have gone unnoticed and unappreciated. The book is divided into three sections: “Assistants, Housekeepers, and Interchangeable Parts: Women Scientists and Professionalization, 1880-1940″, “The Cult of Masculinity in the Age of Heroic Science, 1941-1962″, and “American Women and Science in Transition, 1962-”.
The first section discusses women such as Marie Curie, Lillian Gilbreth, and Annie Jump Cannon. These woman were pioneers in their fields –- women doing science when there were essentially no other women in the field. One of the chapters in this section talks about the women of the Harvard Observatory, from 1880-1940. The director of the observatory, Edward Pickering, hired many women to record measurements and help with classifications. However, these women were not intended to be astronomers –- they were only considered to be “computers”. Nevertheless, many of these women, such as Annie Cannon, Williamina Fleming, and Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin, discovered great things.
The second section discusses scientists such as the Nobel Prize-winning Maria Goeppert-Mayer, Rosalind Franklin, and the women involved in the Manhattan Project. In this age of “heroic science”, when the atomic bomb was being developed and science had captured the public interest in a great way, women began to enter the sciences in larger numbers as many men were being recruited for science related to WWII efforts. This section was extremely interesting; it contrasts the careers of Goeppert-Mayer and Franklin, one of whom is one of two women to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, and the other who deserved a Nobel Prize. The section on the Manhattan Project discusses both the female scientists involved and the lives of women who accompanied their husbands there.
The third section discusses more modern women of science, like Rosalyn Yalow, Barbara McClintock, and “The Lady Trimates”. The Lady Trimates are Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas, all of whom conducted primate research in the field and challenged the cold and removed way science was generally approached at the time. It discusses the increasing number of women in science thanks to the second-wave feminist movement and the passage of Title IX.
This book offers an enlightening look at the struggles and accomplishments of some of the great women scientists of our time. These women faced incredible odds; many had great trouble getting faculty positions at universities, and if they did, they were overworked and underpaid. It was often extremely difficult for them to find the resources necessary to do their research. Marie Curie was forced to go on a tour of the United States to raise money to buy radium for her lab (ironic considering that she discovered radium). Women scientists sometimes had to portray themselves as “maternal scientists”, doing science for the good of humanity rather than for the sake of science, in order to be accepted. Despite obstacles such as these, these women were so dedicated to science that they found whatever way they could to contribute to it. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in science or women’s history, and for anyone involved in science. All scientists, whether they be male or female, should have a knowledge of the contributions that women have made to science and of the hardships that they overcame. Marie Curie discovered radium and polonium and is one of only four people to ever receive two Nobel Prizes. Rosalind Franklin made incredible contributions to uncovering the structure of DNA. Annie Jump Cannon developed the OBAFGKM stellar classification system. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin was the first person to show that the sun was primarily made of hydrogen. Jane Goodall’s field observations challenged the ideas that chimpanzees were vegetarians (they aren’t) and that only humans are capable of using tools. These accomplishments comprise only a small fraction of those discussed in The Madame Curie Complex. The stories told in this book are inspiring, informational, and give women scientists the recognition they deserve.
Jardins concludes by discussing the ways in which women have helped to change the face of science; many women such as Rachel Carson and the Lady Trimates have taken up important roles as science popularizers by making science accessible for the general public. She writes that women have helped create a new scientific hero; one who is “collaborative and multifaceted”, and realizes that “her experience in the private realm has bearing on her science”. Women have different experiences in the world, which is why it is so important to make sure that women have equal representations in science, where the viewpoints and observations of all are needed to make important discoveries. She emphasizes that the positions of women and men in science are different because of cultural traditions, not because of innate biological differences.
For more writing by Vivienne Baldassare, check out her blog!
