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    Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
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    Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
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    Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
    Audiobook7 hours

    Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World

    Written by Rachel Swaby

    Narrated by Lauren Fortgang

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this audiobook

    Fifty-two inspiring and insightful profiles of history's brightest female scientists.

    In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: "She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children." It wasn't until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites in orbit, and had recently been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Among the questions the obituary-and consequent outcry-prompted were, Who are the role models for today's female scientists, and where can we find the stories that cast them in their true light?      

    Headstrong     delivers a powerful, global, and engaging response. Covering Nobel Prize winners and major innovators, as well as lesser-known but hugely significant scientists who influence our every day, Rachel Swaby's vibrant profiles span centuries of courageous thinkers and illustrate how each one's ideas developed, from their first moment of scientific engagement through the research and discovery for which they're best known. This fascinating tour reveals 52 women at their best-while encouraging and inspiring a new generation of girls to put on their lab coats.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPenguin Random House Audio
    Release dateApr 7, 2015
    ISBN9781101890561
    Unavailable
    Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World
    Author

    Rachel Swaby

    Rachel Swaby is a producer of the podcast Runner's World, and the author of Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science--and the World as well as its young readers adaptation, Trailblazers: 33 Women in Science Who Changed the World. She lives in Los Angeles.

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    Reviews for Headstrong

    4/5

    115 ratings38 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I found this collection of 52 brief biographies of female scientists and mathematicians fascinating, inspiring, and moving. Although the author’s decision to include no living scientists means that there are fewer women of color than might have been hoped for, her range is international and cross-historical, showing how a variety of women from various backgrounds were drawn to scientific study and outlining the crucial contributions they made. The author made me reexamine women whose body of work I hadn’t fully understood, as when she reframes famous bedside angel Florence Nightingale as a pioneer of statistical analysis. She also introduced me to women whose stories I didn’t know, some of which, like Rosalind Franklin’s deliberately obfuscated contribution to the discovery of DNA, angered and saddened me. These women’s courage and tenacity are inspiring, but the author rightly rejects tokenization of her subjects; as she says in her introduction, her goal is to “treat women in science like scientists instead of anomalies.” This book should be required reading for anyone committed to helping girls consider careers in STEM fields or indeed anyone interested in the history of scientific discovery.
    • 4/5
      A nice little book with brief profiles of influential scientists from a wide range of fields who all happened to have been women. The entries read almost wikipedia-ish at times, but a three- to four-page profile isn't much space to do more, and the writing is engaging enough to make it a good read. Definitely a good book for inspiring any young woman to pursue whatever intellectual endeavors interest her. The biggest complaint I have is how tiresome it is for every single story to have a "she took whatever job or position she could get for no pay just to have a chance to do her research, since women weren't allowed into that university at the time" section -- but that's a complaint for stupid men in history, not the book.
    • 5/5
      I was really impressed with this book. I knew from the introduction that this book was going to be something special, since Swaby explains why she's leaving out an entry for Marie Curie. I agree with her: first, there are many other books one can read on Curie, and second, if we always sing the praises of Curie and leave out the other women who have made major contributions, then it seems like Curie is a freak of nature - that one woman who could do science. As this book demonstrates, that is not true. Many women have made a significant impact in the STEM fields, and it's about time we learn more about them.One of the other things I liked about this book is that most of the women had a particular attitude towards the sexism of their lives. They just ignored it and kept doing their research. I appreciated that attitude; sometimes, you lead by example by just doing what you love and stepping over anything that gets in your way.I think this book would be a great gift to young people (both men and women) who are interested in the sciences. For young women, it might give them the confidence they need when they are surrounded by disbelief about their abilities. For young men, it will show them the sort of awful treatment women have received in the sciences, which might give them pause when they see it themselves in their everyday lives. Also, for all young people, it might give them new heroes or introduce them to new interests. It's a fun book with fascinating women, and I hope that it is widely read.
    • 4/5
      52 short (about 3 pages each) reviews of important but mostly forgotten women in the sciences. You can tell that lots was left out, this could have been a multi volume set, but I learned a lot about a lot of women whose accomplishments have been buried. So many examples of sexism were on offer that it started to become depressing to read. Only dead women are covered, but the author envisions another edition that expands on the list. There are good end notes and a bibliography for further reading.
    • 4/5
      This is a good book of its kind: a survey of women who made significant contributions to math, science and engineering. The author intended to highlight lesser known women--those whose accomplishments were downplayed in history or, in some cases, outright stolen by male colleagues. (So no Madam Curie, but her Nobel Prize-winning daughter is included.) By their nature, these kinds of books can only give a summary of the life and work of each woman, so anyone who wants to find out more than what can be conveyed in 4-5 pages, must look elsewhere. The author does a good job of sketching the background, obstacles, and accomplishments of each woman. Her writing is clear and she explains the nature of the science/math in a way that lay readers can understand. My only complaint is the dearth of woman of color--only three of the fifty-two and one of those died at age 24 before her career could even get started. Given the obstacles that woman in general met, much less the double burden of both gender and race, these three may have been the only women of color that actually made major contributions, but I hope not. All in all, a satisfying survey.
    • 4/5
      The stories of the 52 women in this book are fascinating, inspiring, and sometimes a bit heart-breaking. But mostly they show incredible perseverance against incredible odds. It is amazing how many of these women had to work at major universities FOR NO PAY because of policies against women faculty. Nevertheless, they ended up winning Nobel prizes, making major discoveries, and proving themselves the equal of their male colleagues time and time again. If only Swaby's book was as good as their science. Her short highlights of each woman's life and achievements are marred by a sloppy writing style that doesn't do her subjects justice. She lacks a grasp of science that allows her to explain the achievements with as much precision as they deserve, and her accounts frequently jump back and forth in time to no good purpose. Nevertheless, these shortcomings become less annoying as the book goes on and the sheer brilliance of these women outweighs the shortcomings of their chronicler. I plan to pass this on to my daughter as the next science read for her 6th grade home schooling. Despite the missing 1 1/2 stars, I still highly recommend this book--at least until someone points me to another that does as much to exalt these frequently downplayed and sometimes completely forgotten achievements. Swaby's choice to limit the subjects to those already deceased is a wise choice by the way. A more carefully edited sequel about living women scientists would also be welcome.
    • 5/5
      Amazingly, in 2013 the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It told of her good cooking, parenting, and that she was a terrific wife. "After a loud, public outcry," the Times rewrote the obit to lead off with the fact that she was a "rocket scientist." This was the nascent beginning of Swaby's desire to write this book.It isn't surprising to hear of "unheard of" women scientists from the 17th century, but it was mind boggling how many there were from the 20th, and re: Brill, the 21st century!A book every student of science should read, every science teacher, every science professor and EVERY YOUNG GIRL!
    • 4/5
      This short book -and I wish it was much longer - was a small pleasure to read and it made me think and rethink my assumptions and prejudices about the history of discovery and science. More than that, it grew in my imagination and it led me to seek out many more in-depth biographies about some of the amazing women represented in the book under review. What started as an enjoyable subway read became a kind of constant in my thoughts for months - I couldn't shake it and didn't want to! Brava.
    • 4/5
      This book was inspired -- if "inspired" is quite the right word -- by the New York Times's obituary for Yvonne Brill. The piece starts out by mentioning the woman's cooking skills, her husband, her kids, her role as a wife and mother... and then, only in paragraph two, gets around to the reason she merited an obituary in the first place: she was a rocket scientist who made a lasting and important contribution to her field. (She invented a propulsion system to help keep communications satellites in their orbits, in fact, so next time you're using your cell phone, you should offer her a "thank you.") This obituary was published in 2013. It's truly impossible to imagine an article starting that way if it were about a man, but apparently even now we're not quite over the idea that a woman's primary sphere is domesticity.Needless to say, things were even harder for women in the past than they are now. And yet, over the years, many, many women have accomplished great things in the fields of science, technology, and mathematics. This book features 52 of them -- 52 women, that is, who are not Marie Curie, the only female scientist most people can name. In addition to Curie, it also leaves out living scientists, the author having chosen to limit herself to people whose life's work can be looked back upon as a complete whole. In no case does it comment on anyone's cooking skills.The writing is adequate but nothing special, and it's summarizing entire lifetimes of sometimes rather complicated technical achievements in just a few pages each, so, needless to say, it comes across as a bit simplified. But the subject matter is terrific. These are fascinating women who did a wide variety fascinating and important things, and I was astonished by how few of them I'd ever even heard of. As a women in a STEM field, myself, I find it oddly heartening to look back on this long history of women's scientific accomplishments. I'd recommend the book, in particular, as a great gift for girls who are interested in science and technology and might be inspired to take it up as a career.Rating: I'm a little unsure how to rate this, because the execution is really just OK, but I found the subject so inspiring that I didn't much care, and kind of loved it anyway. I'm going to go with 4/5.
    • 4/5
      This reference work is a biographical anthology of famous (deceased) women scientist. It appears that author’s goal in writing the book was to try and garner interest and curiosity about these woman through informing readers very briefly not only about each person’s scientific achievements, but also about the key human interests stories the author found that had the power to make each woman come to life in the reader’s mind. The author is a journalist, not a scientist. For example, she leads into the biography of famous bacteriologist, Anna Wessels Williams, by touting her love of flying stunt planes. And she begins her biography about, Alice Ball, the woman who was the first person to develop an effective injectable treatment for leprosy, by describing in chilling vivid prose, the forbidding and isolating desolation of the leper colony on Molokai. It’s effective and well-written journalism. She’s also done her homework enough to get the science right. That she tells the science and a good story in about four pages shows how limited the real biography (and science!) is in any one of these fifty-two biographies. The anthology consists of an “Introduction,” fifty-two separate chapters (each on a different woman and each averaging a little over four pages in length), an eight-page “Notes” section, and a sixteen-pages “Bibliography.” The fifty-two women cover the period from the mid Seventieth Century to the beginning of the Twenty-first. I find that number incredibly sad and appalling. This reference book is well suited for adding to the reference collections of public and high school libraries. It will help in promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) careers for young girls and women. Although the author suggests that the book can be read cover to cover and little by little over fifty-two weeks, by any interested person, I doubt seriously that anyone would chose to do that. I am certainly one of those very interested persons, but I would never choose to spend time reading this book in its entirety either in a few days, or over an entire year. For the purpose of this review, I did read ten random chapters. If I were young and had to do a report, this would be an acceptable reference tool. [I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.]
    • 4/5
      Excellent book that provides short profiles of many women that have had influential, even if often forgotten, careers in various scientific fields. It made me want to read more about many of these women and their histories and adventures. I really liked the writing style of the author - clear, funny, and inspiring without being cloying or romanticizing. This is an excellent book, and highlights so many women that should have gotten prizes or awards but where dismissed or forgotten.
    • 4/5
      An interesting collection of short biographies of 52 women who impacted STEM fields, this book is a great introduction to a wide array of women who have helped to shape the modern world and how we see it. Though the biographies are brief, they're information packed and a good place to start for anyone wanting to learn more about female intellectual luminaries.
    • 5/5
      Headstrong is a clever title for an interesting book. The book provides short biographical sketches of 52 female scientists whose inventions and research led to significant discoveries or products that changed the world in some way. I would have liked to have had a little more detail about these women, but I really enjoyed reading about the significant impact these women had in many different fields. Their stories are inspiring, and considering what they had to endure to even get opportunities to practice in their chosen fields, what they ultimately achieved is even more remarkable. This book is a wonderful introduction to women's history, especially in the sciences.One note: hopefully this uncorrected proof did get corrected before actual publication as there were a ton of typos! There were so many mistakes that at times it was a bit distracting. Other than this, the style was very readable, and the stories are gripping, even if a bit short. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in women's history.
    • 4/5
      Should a woman be offended to read an obituary about a female scientist that describes the deceased as a wonderful mother before mentioning her profession? Should a man be offended to read an obituary about a male scientist that mentions his profession before his family? I am left pondering this one point. Yes, each of these women was overlooked and underappreciated but, in the end, I find it just as sad that a man is not appreciated as much for being a great father as a woman is not appreciated for being a great scientist.This is a fabulous idea and I think the author’s suggestion of reading one bio a week would make for better reading than straight through as I did. So many of these brilliant ladies that I did not know about, so many that I wanted to know more about than the few pages allotted. Reading straight through gave the bios a predictable pattern. Reading one a week and spending some time researching any that captured my interest would have been more fulfilling.
    • 4/5
      A charming collection of brief biographies of female scientists. Swaby creates small glimpses into these women's lives, personalities, and break-throughs. I was delighted that in some of the stories I was more entranced by the nature of the scientific work, than on life of the scientist. Swaby should be commended for making these women's accomplishments really shine. Not a book you want to read cover to cover, but something to pick up once in a while and muse over.
    • 4/5
      This is an important book. When I first released it from its envelope (thanks, Broadway Books, for sending it) my first thought was "Aaaa! It's so tiny!" What it lacks in physical size, though, it makes up for in utility and sprightliness.I have to agree with other reviewers about the occasional stylistic wobbles: occasionally I thought "OK, OK, Swaby -- we get it, you're hip and irreverent," but this was far outweighed by the tales told, and the fact that there are a lot of them (52 ... one per week ... a tad arbitrary, but acceptable) and they don't feel repetitive, even though names will sometimes reappear. Furthermore, you get just enough scientific detail to become intrigued, but no more. For that reason I wish the bibliography was more substantial -- but it's a start.Why do I care? Why was I excited when this book showed up in Early Reviewers? Well, I consider myself a feminist. Also, I work in (well, in support of) science, and can tell you firsthand that, although women have made great strides in attaining equal standing with their male cohorts, there is a great deal of work still to do. Gender-role indoctrination starts early, and rarely lets up. I've seen it. The fact that it is 2015 and I can still make the previous statements is shameful.So it is good there are books like this, to show budding (or flagging) female scientists that it can all work out. It's inspiring to me, too, and I'm male -- but a wannabe science-person all the same, so these stories of triumph over adversity and ignorance are womanna from heaven (sorry). Read, marvel and rejoice.
    • 3/5
      This was a really interesting book about women in science . Everyone is familiar with M. Curie and F. Nightingale , but this takes you way beyond those two ladies . The 52 profiles are short and to the point . It's a great jumping off point for people that want to do more reading . This would make a great gift for any student.
    • 4/5
      This is a nice quick read, and very interesting. So many of these women managed to do extraordinary things as scientists with so little support. This would be a good reference for science teachers who want to cover more women in their lessons.
    • 3/5
      I had high hopes for this book because the topic of women in science is seldom covered. But I was disappointed. The bios were very short and when one woman excelled in various fields, such as Alice Hamilton, the information on each was sparse. Many bits of information were missing that would have rounded out the bios. Mary Anning influenced Charles Darwin but we don't know how. The word 'eucaines' was used in Alice Hamilton's article but not defined and not explained by context. Alice Evans' work in bacteriology seemed critical to medicine but she had three short pages.The bibliography seemed to be exclusively web sites which I found extremely disappointing. If I could go on the internet and read about each woman, why would I need to buy this book? My go to reference is the five volume "Notable American Women" which covers 18 of the women in this book. Published by Harvard University, it is very authoritative and would have been invaluable for a book like this. Why wasn't it used? I won't even mention the numerous typos which I hope would have been caught in the final version. I would pass on this one.
    • 5/5
      Remember when the New York Times obituary for rocket scientist Yvonne Brill led with her beef stroganoff and devoted wife credentials rather than the jet propulsion system she invented? Headstrong doesn't make that mistake. Lively, entertaining, and inspiring, the book contains 52 brief but fascinating profiles of women from the 17th through the 21st century who have made significant contributions to science. Rachel Swaby sketches the women in just a few pages, but that's enough to give a sense of each woman, the scientific advance she was responsible for, and the historical era she lived in. Fifty-two women means there's one entry for every week of the year, and it's a great book to have along when you only have a short time to read--commutes, waiting rooms, etc. Many of the women I had heard of--Rachel Carson, Sally Ride, Ada Lovelace, Maria Mitchell among them--but far more were new to me. I greatly enjoyed this book, and while I think it was written with adults in mind the engaging accessible style means that middle and high school students will be able to appreciate it too.I read ab advanced review copy of this book provided to me at no cost by the publisher through LibraryThing. Review opinions are mine.
    • 4/5
      This review of "Headstrong" by Rachel Swaby is based on an uncorrected proof (so I'm not going to worry about the typos or other sentence-level stuff)... and, overall, it's a fun brief survey of somewhat known, and lesser-known, women in the sciences. In the short Introduction, Swaby reminds readers that the results will seem short on women of color -- because "opportunities for white women in science opened up before they did for women of color" (xi). Swaby also gives a friendly 'sorry not sorry' for leaving out Marie Curie, specifically since she's the "token woman" always cited first, as the woman scientist "most likely to pop up in casual conversation, and to which all other women in science are compared" (xii). So the selection and selection criteria might not appeal to all readers, but the author's goal of producing a volume which could be read one entry at a time over the course of one year was nonetheless achieved. The majority of the women profiled are American. There are a few Europeans, especially those historical figures who ended up moving to the U.S. as a result of war. This will make the names and places of their education and work more accessible for a young reader in the U.S. I imagine a book like this being a good fit for an advanced middle school or high school student, regardless of sex/gender. One other thing -- which might annoy older readers but could be appealing to students -- is that the sources are largely electronic. The entry on Ada Lovelace, for example, cites five sources total, one from the summary of a book about Charles Babbage on Amazon.com, and another from a news release about an exhibition of Babbage's papers at Yale. However, I'd say these types of sources do raise important issues, and ones deeply related to the relevance of Swaby's work: it's hard to find references to works about female pioneers like these; they're more often mentioned in works about their male colleagues, for one. Also, for that reason, when looking for info about a lesser-known woman (like Lovelace) students and researchers can be left relying on somewhat less conventionally 'scholarly' materials. So, in summary, I'd give this work a strong 4 stars out of 5, and hope it helps pave the way for more 5 star resources down the road.
    • 4/5
      Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science – and the World, by Rachel Swaby, is a diverse collection of stories of incredibly bright women who helped shape our lives today. A few of the women are familiar to most, such as biologist Rachel Carson, and astronaut Sally Ride. I especially enjoyed the stories of some of the lesser-known women, such as chemist Ruth Benerito, who discovered wrinkle-free cotton and changed the clothing industry. And, physicist Lise Meitner, who experimented with nuclear fission, escaped Nazi Germany, and today has an element on the periodic table named after her. This collection is highly readable; each profile is succinct and well-written. It’s an inspirational assortment of stories of women in physics, medicine, and other areas of science who significantly impacted today’s body of knowledge.
    • 3/5
      I appreciate the work of this author to research these 52 women who contributed to science in a variety of ways. A compilation of short 3-5 page essays, this book was obviously very well researched and documented. It is not a compelling read, and so I read it in pieces; I'm glad to have read the whole thing. Rachel Swaby groups the 52 biographees into seven scientific areas: medicine, biology and the environment, genetics and development, physics, the earth and the stars, math and technology, and invention. A few of the women like Rachel Carson, Grace Hopper, Heddy Lamarr, Ada Lovelace, Florence Nightingale, and Sally Ride are well known names, although I imagine a few of the facts in these pages may be new to its reader. These and all the others deserve the recognition that Rachel Swaby gives them.The author's introduction points out that she has only included scientists whose lasting influence is clear; none of them is currently living. She only included those where she felt she could "travel beyond the bullet points of a dazzling career." Hopefully this work will be one of a growing number chronicling women in science role models for girls.
    • 5/5
      Well-named book! There are 52 biographies in this book, each only a few pages long, but enough to point the interested reader to further research. It is a book intended for empowerment - see the cool things these women researched! But it is a book that makes me frustrated and, well, gob-smacked at the problems that most of them faced just to get into the field they exceled in , or to get their work accepted, or even to be credited with it once it was accepted. Marie Curie does not appear in here - she doesn't need recognition. But her daughter is. I recognized a few names: Virginia Apgar, whose standard checklist identifies newborns at risk; Hedy Lamarr, who patented frequency-hopping comms; Sally Ride, astronaut; Ada Lovelace, computer pioneer; Florence Nightingale, nurse; Rachel Carson, author of Silent Spring. But it is the lesser-known women who are the revelation. They were working, contributing, and are generally unknown. Women in science have come a long way in terms of being allowed to enter fields. But we must be aware how easily those that went before can be forgotten. They do not deserve that. Read this book. It is not deathless literature, or even great biographies. But it is a start to understanding women's history in science.
    • 3/5
      I did not read this book in the fashion it was intended, so take it with a grain of salt. This book will be perfect for teachers, or parents who want to inspire their daughters, to share with a middle school or high school girl one chapter at a time. I read it straight through, which got pretty repetitive and boring. Each woman did amazing things, and the stories were incredible, but unfortunately reading 3-5 pages about each one's accomplishments all in a row wasn't as inspiring.Each chapter has clearly been incredibly well researched, and translated from complex scientific concepts into something a more general audience can understand. Sometimes it got a little too simple for my taste (ie, trying to use slang or familiar words/phrases), but if it's intended for a younger audience, it'll work really well.In short, I'm really glad this book exists - I'd just recommend reading a chapter at a time here and there.
    • 4/5
      I received a copy of Headstrong as a Library Thing Advanced Reader Copy. Although I enjoyed reading it, I think its intended purpose is mostly as a resource for educators and child leaders to suggest female role models for students In science and technology. A few of the selected subjects are predictable but they were many that I was not familiar with. The 2 to 4 page summaries of their careers and contributions are well done with touches of humor and a good sense of personality included by the addition of interesting details. References are provided for specific details and a bibliography of additional source material is included for each person. The minibiographies cover a time span from the 1600s until modern time and there is some diversity in geography. One could wish for more geographic and ethnic diversity but I suspect that sources are limited so I can’t be very critical about this. The short entries are readable and brief so this is a great book to leave around for folks to pick up and browse, especially in an office setting where it could do a great deal to increase awareness of historical contributions that we rarely hear about. I’d like to see it in every middle school and high school library and also to receive wider distribution.
    • 4/5
      In the Introduction the author says, "As girls in science look around for role models, they shouldn't have to dig around to find them." The rest of the Introduction goes on to imply—and I'm summarizing—that we need to get this book in front of our girls and young women.I agree wholeheartedly. However, I don't think it's enough of a statement. It is necessary but not sufficient to instill a sense of expectation and confidence in the female half of our youth; we also need to instill a sense of expectation and normalcy about it in the male half. The New York Times obituary for Yvonne Brill (inventor of the hydrazine propulsion system still used in satellites) spent the entire first paragraph lauding her cooking, her loyalty as a wife, and her excellence as a mother. Though Swaby doesn't note this, that obituary wasn't written by a woman. Nor was the British Daily Mail article expressing its pleased surprise over "Nobel Prize for British Wife"...presumably, per Ms. Swaby's delightfully wicked aside, Dorothy Hodgkin did so while matching her husband's socks.While this book occasionally reaches for an awkward bon mot and has a couple moments where it is uneven, it is usually illuminating, inspiring and exceptionally readable by a person of any age or gender. Moreover, Swaby's informative but easy style is suitable for anyone regardless of their investiture in STEM disciplines. It doesn't teach science, it teaches about those who did science.I might say, "As boys in science look around for models of peers, they shouldn't have to dig around to find them." Honestly, I think this book, or one very similar to it, should just be required reading for every middle schooler. It should inspire them at times and make them mad at others but, in the end, credit where credit is due.
    • 5/5
      Headstrong is a collection of brief bios of women who were influential (though in many cases, virtually unknown) in the history of science. It is an enjoyable and informative book, even for someone like me who doesn't read much non-fiction.
    • 5/5
      I loved this book. It's rather like being at a party where every waiter that walks by has some delicious little bite on the tray. Each of these brief biographies made me want to learn more about the amazing women they described and the challenges they faced. My only regret is that, except for the unidentified cameos on the cover, there are no pictures. I would have really liked to see photos or paintings of these amazing women, and I don't think it would have required all that much to include them.Worth owning and sharing.
    • 4/5
      In "A Room of One's Own", Virginia Wolf created a fictional sister of Shakespeare and lamented that this girl may have been of equal genius as her brother, but for lack of education and "a room of her own", she languished and died without her intellect ever being realized. No disrespect to Wolf or her imaginary heroine, but perhaps they should have taken note of the women in this book. While many of these women were encouraged to be educated by family, several were forbidden. But they learned anyway, even if it meant swiping books on physics from their father's library, like Sophie Kowalevski. As for space, often these women were denied pay or proper research space strictly because they were women - and yet, they turned janitor's closets into laboratories for radioisotope research, like Rosalyn Sussman Yalow, or a made world-changing scientific breakthroughs in dank, small labs with no bathrooms, like Lise Meitner. Unlike the Wolf's fictional genius, these real life geniuses persevered, demanded space, and when denied, made it for themselves anyway. These amazing scientist knew what Wolf didn't seem to - a woman with a passion is a force of nature, one that cannot be stopped. Swaby does an excellent job of giving a brief overview of each one of these remarkable women. In fact, to my mind, she was a bit too brief. She could have added a more information and the book would have been better for it. However, her work stands as remarkable and worth reading. And mostly, worth sharing. I have the urge to buy this for all the young girls I know. Swaby was wise enough to add an extensive bibliography in the back, because as the reader, you will want to read up more on all of these remarkable scientist!Note: I received this free as part of LibraryThing's Early Reviwer Program in exchange ofr my fair and honest opinion