Women in Science

 Book 28 of my 2021 Reading Challenge

Women in Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World

by Rachel Ignotofsky 

Summary (via Goodreads)

published 2016

Women in Science highlights the contributions of fifty notable women to the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) from the ancient to the modern world. Full of striking, singular art, this collection also contains infographics about relevant topics such as lab equipment, rates of women currently working in STEM fields, and an illustrated scientific glossary. 

The women profiled include well-known figures like primatologist Jane Goodall, as well as lesser-known pioneers such as Katherine Johnson, the African-American physicist and mathematician who calculated the trajectory of the 1969 Apollo 11 mission to the moon. 

First Impressions/Judging a Book by Its Cover

This juvenile non-fiction definitely has the cover art to appeal to its demographic.  It's been on my 'to-read' list since 2017 so I can't say for sure where I saw it but I'm guessing it caught my eye at a bookstore or book festival and I added it to look for at a later date.

I checked it out from the library now because my 14 year-old daughter was talking to me about a quiz they'd taken at school about notable figures for Women's History Month.  It was a team effort so she was able to tell me how surprised she was about either a) women she knew about that others didn't or b) women she'd never heard of that others had.  I haven't decided if I'm going to read this with her or give it to her after I'm done but either way, I know this will generate more conversation.  

I'm not sure how many of these women I will know but factoring in the STEM aspect, I'm guessing it may not be many.  

My Opinion

3 stars

Looking at my first impressions, I was correct that I would learn about many women -- I kept track and I'd only heard of 8 of the women profiled.  I also learned a new term, "aquanaut", when reading about Sylvia Earle

Great concept but a little lacking on the execution.  The illustrations are great and enhance the text, especially for a juvenile non-fiction book.  However, the author's efforts to keep each profile to two pages (one for a large illustration of the woman and one for the text with lots of little notes and illustrations surrounding the margins of both pages) muddied the waters a little bit. I wasn't sure where to start -- the main text followed by the notes or circle around the text to read all the notes first -- because the margins were filled with completely new information, not even bullet points or highlights of the main text.  

I think either editing the biographies to remain comfortably in 2 pages/woman or changing the setup (maybe the large illustration and sidenotes on one page and the text and smaller illustrations on the other page), or just having a longer book incorporating the notes into the main text, could make a huge difference in the accessibility for young readers.

I will pass this along to my 14 year old because she will enjoy it; the hesitations I mentioned above apply to the younger side of the "juvenile non-fiction" crowd.

A Few Quotes from the Book

"As long as humanity has asked questions about our world, men and women have looked to the stars, under rocks, and through microscopes to find the answers. Although both men and women have the same thirst for knowledge, women have not always been given the same opportunities to explore the answers."

"Women make up half of our population, and we simply cannot afford to ignore that brain power - the progress of humankind depends on our continual search for knowledge."