The madame curie complex

The MadaMe Curie CoMplex

The Women WriTing Science ProjecT

in collaboration with the national Science Foundation, the Feminist Press announces Women Writing Science, a series of books that bring to life the story of women in science, engineering, technology, and mathematics. From biographies and novels to research-based nonfiction, Women Writing Science will celebrate the achievements ofwomen scientists, explore their conflicts, address gender bias barriers, encourage women and men of all ages to become more scientifically literate, and embolden young women to choose careers in science. Other books in the series Women in Science: then and noW Vivian gornick BaSe ten maryann Lesert

The MadaMe Curie CoMplex
The Hidden History of Women in Science

Julie des JardinsPublished in 2010 by the Feminist Press at the city University of new York The graduate center 365 Fifth Avenue new York, nY 10016 Feministpress.org First printing march 2010 Text copyright © 2010 by julie Des jardins All rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced or used, stored in any information retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,photocopying, recording, or otherwise without prior written permission from the Feminist Press at the city University of new York, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. cover and text design by Drew Stevens Publication of this volume is made possible, in part, by funds from the national Science Foundation and Sara Lee Schupf. Library of congresscataloging-in-Publication data Des jardins, julie. The madame curie complex : the hidden history of women in science / julie Des jardins. p. cm. — (Women writing science) iSBn 978-1-55861-613-4 1. Women scientists—Biography. 2. Women engineers—Biography. 3. Women in science. 4. Women in engineering. 5. Sex role—United States—history. 6. Spouses. i. Title. Q141.D44 2010 500.82—dc22 2009037794

To my dad, myBella, and a meeting of the minds

contents

introduction: Through the Lives of Women Scientists. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 i. ssistants, housekeepers, and interchangeable Parts: a Women Scientists and Professionalization, 1880–1940 . . . . . . . . . . 11 1. madame curie’s American Tours: Women and Science in the 1920s . . . 23 2. Making Science Domestic and Domesticity Scientific: TheAmbiguous Life and Ambidextrous Work of Lillian gilbreth . . . . . 53 3. To embrace or Decline marriage and Family: Annie jump cannon and the Women of the harvard observatory, 1880–1940 . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 ii. he cult of masculinity in the age of heroic Science, t 1941–1962 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 4. ThoseScience made invisible: Finding the Women of the manhattan Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130 5. maria goeppert mayer and rosalind Franklin: The Politics of Partners and Prizes in the heroic Age of Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 iii. american Women and Science in transition, 1962– . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 6.generational Divides: rosalyn Sussman Yalow, evelyn Fox Keller, Barbara mcclintock, and Feminism after 1963 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 7. The Lady Trimates and Feminist Science?: jane goodall, Dian Fossey, and Biruté galdikas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 conclusion: Apes, corn, and Silent Springs: A Women’s Tradition of Science? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285 acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295 index. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297

introduction: through the Lives of Women Scientists

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