Women in Science: Then and Now

“Strongly felt, vigorously written.”—The Women’s Review of Books

“Gornick’s portraits demonstrate the driving force behind science.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Opens the discussion about women’s diverse problems and ambitions in science.”—The New York Times Book Review

“Women in science stir the contemporary imagination. In their hyphenated identity is captured the pain and excitement of a culture struggling to mature.”—The Washington Post

In this newly revised twenty-fifth anniversary edition, acclaimed writer and journalist Vivian Gornick interviews famous and lesser-known scientists, compares their experiences then and now, and shows that, although not much has changed in the world of science, what is different is women’s expectations that they can and will succeed.

Everything from the disparaging comments by Harvard’s then-president to government reports and media coverage has focused on the ways in which women supposedly can’t do science. Gornick’s original interviews show how deep and severe discrimination against women was back then in all scientific fields. Her new interviews, with some of the same women she spoke to twenty-five years ago, provide a fresh description of the hard times and great successes these women have experienced.

Vivian Gornick is the author of nine books and has been nominated for the National Book Award and National Book Critics Circle Award. Her articles have appeared in The Village Voice (where she was a staff writer for eight years), The Nation, The New York Times Book Review, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and The New Yorker.