Femininity, mathematics and science, 1880-1914
By: Claire G. Jones
Contributors: Palgrave Connect (Online service)
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2009
Place of publication: Basingstoke
Language: eng
Format: [electronic resource] /
Number of pages: 264
ISBN-13: 9780230246652
Subjects: Feminism and science; Intellectual life; Women in science; Women; Women in mathematics; History
Description: Through the prism of gender, this book examines the contrasting cultures and practices of mathematics and science in the decades surrounding 1900 and asks how they impacted on women. Claire Jones explores ideas about women's intellect and femininity and assesses how these attitudes shaped women's experiences as students and practitioners. Particular attention is paid to women studying mathematics at Cambridge and the repercussions of their relative success on the pass lists. Although the focus is firmly on women, the book also engages with issues of masculinity, identifying a culture of manliness within the laboratory and analysing the gender politics of the Royal Society of London, which almost elected a woman in 1902, but actually had no female Fellow until 1945. Using sources including institutional records, letters, memoirs, journalistic and fictional accounts, Jones offers fresh insights into the operation of gender within science and mathematics between c1880 and 1914.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.

Electronic reproduction. Basingstoke, England : Palgrave Macmillan, 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web. System requirements: Web browser. Title from title screen (viewed on Apr. 12, 2010). Access may be restricted to users at subscribing institutions.
Table of contents: title: The 'glamour' of a 'wrangler': Women and Mathematics at Girton College, Cambridge; title: Women at the 'Shrine of Pure Thought'; title: Professional or Pedestal?: Hertha Ayrton, a Woman among the Engineers; title: Collaboration, Reputation and the Business of Mathematics; title: The Laboratory: A Suitable Place for a Woman?: Women, Masculinity and Laboratory Culture; title: The Mathematics of Gender: Women, Participation and the Mathematical Community; title: Bodies of Controversy: Women and the Royal Society of London.