num_pages: 350
description: Why did Western science become a male-dominated enterprise? Philosopher Sandra Harding notes "women have been more systematically excluded from doing serious science than performing any other social activity except, perhaps, frontline warfare." A World Without Women provides a full-scale investigation of the origins &amp; implications of the masculine culture of Western science &amp; technology, &amp; in the process offers some revelations. Noble begins by showing that, contrary to common notions that the culture of learning in the West has always excluded women--an assumption based on the supposed legacy of ancient Greece--men didn't thoroughly dominate intellectual life until the start of the 2nd millennium of the Xian era. At this time science &amp; the practices of higher learning became the province of the newly celibate Xian clergy, whose ascetic culture denied women a place in scholarly enterprise. By the 12th century, papal reform movements had all but swept away the material &amp; ideological supports of future female participation in the world of learning. As never before, women were outside looking in. He further demonstrates that the clerical legacy of a world without women remained mostly intact thru the Reformation, permeating the emergant culture of science. He finally points to a dread of women at the core of modern scientific &amp; technological enterprise, as these disciplines work to deprive half of humanity of its role in production (as seen in the Industrial Revolution's male appropriation of labor) &amp; reproduction (the age-old quest for an artificial womb). It also makes plain the hypocrisy of a community that honors a female scientist with a bronze bust, as England's Royal Society did for Mary Somerville in the mid-19th century, yet denies her entry to its hall. A disturbing book, A World Without Women is essential reading for anyone concerned about the world of science &amp; the world science has made.AcknowledgmentsIntroduction1/A World with Women Mothers, Daughters, Sisters, Wives Revivals2/A World Without Women Saints: The Ascent of Clerical Asceticism Fathers: Patristic Anxiety to Papal Agenda Brothers: The Militarization of Monasticism Priests: The Monasticization of the Church Bachelors: The Scholastic Cloister3/Science Revelation in Nature The Scientific Restoration Women in a World Without WomenEpilogueNotesIndexPermissions Acknowledgments
language: English
title: A World Without Women: The Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science
titlecomplete: A World Without Women: The Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science
genres: Anthropology, History Of Science, Science, Nonfiction, History, Religion
ratings_count: 27
publisher: Alfred A. Knopf (NY)