Research Catalog

Chemistry was their life : pioneer British women chemists, 1880-1949 / by Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham.

Title
Chemistry was their life : pioneer British women chemists, 1880-1949 / by Marelene Rayner-Canham, Geoff Rayner-Canham.
Author
Rayner-Canham, Marelene F.
Publication
London : Imperial College Press ; Hackensack, NJ : Distributed by World Scientific Pub., c2008.

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TextRequest in advance QD20 .R39 2008Off-site

Details

Additional Authors
Rayner-Canham, Geoffrey
Description
xvii, 542 p. : ill.; 24 cm.
Summary
"British chemistry has traditionally been depicted as a solely male endeavour. However, this perspective is untrue: the allure of chemistry has attracted women since the earliest times. Despite the barriers placed in their path, women studied academic chemistry from the 1880s onwards and made interesting or significant contributions to their fields, yet they are virtually absent from historical records." "Comprising a unique set of biographies of 141 of the 896 known women chemists from 1880 to 1949, this work attempts to address the imbalance by showcasing the determination of these women to survive and flourish in an environment dominated by men. Individual biographical accounts interspersed with contemporary quotes describe how women overcame the barriers of secondary and tertiary education, and of admission to professional societies. Although these women are lost to historical records, they are brought together here for the first time to show that a vibrant culture of female chemists did indeed exist in Britain during the late 19th and early 20th centuries."--Jacket.
Subjects
Genre/Form
  • Biography
  • Biographies
  • History
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
Getting an education -- The professional societies -- The London co-educational colleges -- The London women's colleges -- English provincial universities -- The Cambridge and Oxford women's colleges -- Universities in Scotland and Wales -- Hoppy's 'biochemical ladies' -- Women crystallographers -- Women in pharmacy -- The role of chemists' wives -- Women chemists and the First World War -- The interwar period and beyond.
ISBN
  • 186094986X
  • 9781860949869
OCLC
  • 191658448
  • SCSB-10262485
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library