Contrasting Lives: Suffragette and Suffragist Strategies in the Careers of Two Great Women Scientists, 1910-1976 (History and Philosophy of Science)

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

This project compares the contrasting careers and personal lives of two great 20th Century British women scientists, one a theoretician and the other an experimentalist, and seeks to clarify the social and scientific determinants of success and of failure for women in science. The lives and works of these two women intersected in the 1930s, when both were based at Oxford, while further belonging to a group of a dozen ideologically sensitive scientists who pioneered the rise of molecular biology in Britain. The case study of Dorothy C. Hodgkin (1910-), sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1964, will be explored as a paradigm of success, including the establishment of a research school composed of over a hundred men and women disciples. The case study of Dorothy Wrinch (1894-1976), a mathematician turned biologist who had been considered a "woman Einstein," but who came to spend the later part of her career obsessed with a theory which her men rivals erroneously claimed to have refuted, will be explored as a paradigm of failure. The project seeks to exhibit and clarify the diversity of women's experience in science in its historical, scientific, and political contexts. The interactive component of this project includes: a) teaching a new course "Social history of women scientists from the French revolution to the present" for both graduate and undergraduate students; b) the organization of an interdisciplinary and international symposium on "Women's lives in science: Historical and contemporary perspectives," at which historians, sociologists and practicing scientists will present their experiences; c) teaching a new seminar on "Research schools of molecular biology in the US, UK and France, 1920-1970"; d) the organization of a monthly colloquium to stimulate interaction between the scientific, historical and literary communities, especially students, at the host institution. This project furthers VPW program objectives which are (1) to provide opportunities for women to advance their careers in engineering and in the disciplines of science supported by NSF and (2) to encourage women to pursue careers in science and engineering by providing greater visibility for women scientists and engineers employed in industry, government, and academic institutions. By encouraging the participation of women in science, it is a valuable investment in the Nation's future scientific vitality.