Maria Mitchell and the Sexing of Science: The Rise and Reversals of a Great American Astronomer Book

This book should be required for everyone, but most especially women going into the sciences. This literally changed the way I look at the world in a very fundamental way. What is considered "women's work" and "men's work" is as changeable as the wind: despite the widespread question now-a-days of whether women aren't as cut out for or aren't as interested in science, back in the 1800s women were doing science all over the place. It was considered perfectly suited for women because at that time science was orderly, clockwork, hierarchical, so what better thing for women to study? Men studied the classics in order to become clergy or lawyers, or take on some lucrative profession. Science wasn't a profession, more of a hobby. In that environment, women were encouraged to learn science. In fact, women's schools at the time had science-heavy curricula, while men's schools were exclusively focused on the classics. By the late 19th century however things were changing. Scientific discoveries were rocking the orderly, clockwork picture of the world. Science became a profession, and what's more a lucrative and potentially destabilizing one. And so began the steady and continual discouragement of women in science. Articles were written proclaiming that women's minds weren't scientific, and the attitude that a woman scientist was an unsexed woman became so widespread that the epitaphs for all women scientists contained obligatory reassurances that, yes, she was a scientist, but more than that, she was a *woman* who enjoyed cooking, cleaning, knitting. And that dubious legacy has lasted until this day. Please read this book!