Reviews for The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D. D.: Late Head-Master of Rugby School, and R...

The average rating for The Life and Correspondence of Thomas Arnold, D. D.: Late Head-Master of Rugby School, and R... based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-10-22 00:00:00 Adam Davidson Women who aspire to the lives of scientists often experience societal, professional, and emotional conflicts with their gen¬der. These conflicts are explored in Uneasy Careers and Intimate Lives: Women in Science, 1789-1979, which is a collection of essays edited by Pnina G. Abir-Am and Dorinda Outram. The intent of the book was to examine the difficulties women had in science, particularly, in the relationships between their careers and personal lives. These case studies attempted to show the contri¬bution that women have made to science from the early 19th cen¬tury to the present day; therefore, the editors claimed that a change from the male dominated history of science needed to be abandoned to allow the females their rightful place. The book was structured into two parts. The first part was a collection of six social-historical studies which showed that it was not the family but the changes in science which provided the difficulties for the women. Outram's essay discussed the interac¬tion of women with the social organizations of science within Napoleonic France. In Shteir's discussion of early 19th century women botanists, she showed that the family need not always re¬strict a woman's scientific interests. Botany was conducive to exploration in the domestic setting. Morantz-Sanchez focused her study on the choices of American women physicians. These choices consisted of marital partnership, companionship of other women physicians, and adoption of their children. This section continued with Marianne Ainley, who wrote a study of the careers and home life of three women ornithologists; Sherman, Nice, and Laskey. All three had to sacrifice parts of their professional or private lives because of their own self- perceptions of what was required of them. Slack's essay on Ameri¬can women botanists discussed four women, with emphasis on the life of Almira Phelps, and their particular relationships while single, married to another botanist, and widowed. The final chapter in this section was by Ogilvie who wrote on the subject of collaborative marriages. For Aryton and Huggins, this approach worked very well; but for Dietrich, it constrained her work. The second section contained six biographical essays of successful women in science. Kohlstedt wrote her essay on Maria Mitchell who was the first woman astronomy professor. Mitchell's study discussed the option of remaining single throughout her career. Harvey's study of Clemence Royer, who was most famous for her translation of Darwin's Origin of Species, exemplified a woman who spoke against the mainstream scientific community. Abir Am's article on Dorothy Wrinch also examined her confrontations with the scientific community and her heated debates with Paul¬ing. Wrinch, however, managed to successfully integrate career and marriage twice, on two separate continents. There were three other examples revealing how women devised ways to manage home life and career. These sometimes radical ideas were the anti-natural path, the astronomy family, and Nihilist's ideas. Pycior's essay on Marie Curie discussed her answer to the career, private life problem. This was the "anti- natural" path which allocated time for her and her husband for only science and family. Kidwell's study on Payne-Gaposchkin provided still another solution to combine work and family. She expressed a kinship with her Harvard astronomy colleagues and was accepted into their "astronomy family." Once she did marry, her husband often hindered her career. Koblitz discussed the Nihil¬ist's option of mathematician Sofia Kovalevskia which treated women as equals. Kovalevskia devised a fictitious marriage which allowed her father's opposition to travel abroad and study full time. She was inspired by the idea that she was opening up new paths for women. In the preceding books that I have read for this class, this was the only one, that I recall, which gave any mention to a major female scientist. Before reading the book I could name only Marie Curie as a successful woman scientist; therefore, I expect¬ed to be enlightened on other great female contributions to science that the male-dominated history had neglected. Unfortu-nately, after reading the book, I found the theme of how to bal¬ance one's domestic and professional life to be the major focus of the collection of essays. This is not to discount what these women did or the gender specific hardships that they encountered. I would have preferred to study the scientific achievements of women rather than the problems women faced as scientists. Perhaps, in response to my own statement, one could say that the problems that women face as scientists are inseparable from their achievements. The minority struggle to break the societal norms of the majority is always effected and shaped by the fight itself; but, I always try to judge another person as a colorless, genderless human who has strived for success in a career that he or she find important. This may be idealistic, but it is some¬thing that is worthy to strive for. In studying a topic such as women in science, I feel that their achievements should be kept in the forefront, and their particular difficulties should be observed but not focused on. This book has discussed the dilemma that every women scien¬tist has faced. Unfortunately, most husbands did not help their wives alleviate the stress of domestic chores. My wife and I both work full time and go to school at night. For us, a shared domestic responsibility is the only way that we could both achieve our goals. It is hard to understand man's past insensi¬tivity to a career of a professional wife. I hope that both genders have changed for the better over the past two centuries. Spousal cooperation is the most desirable way to handle the balance between life's intimacy and career opportunity.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-04 00:00:00 Antonio Cotten This is the collected proceeding of a workshop on Women in Science. As a woman in science I can relate to a lot of the experiences of the women studied, particularly the more recent ones. Things HAVE changed (even since I was young) but not that much.