Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World

by Rachel Swaby

Fifty-two inspiring and insightful profiles of history’s brightest female scientists.

“Rachel Swaby’s no-nonsense and needed Headstrong dynamically profiles historically overlooked female visionaries in science, technology, engineering, and math.”—Elle

In 2013, the New York Times published an obituary for Yvonne Brill. It began: “She made a mean beef stroganoff, followed her husband from job to job, and took eight years off from work to raise three children.” It wasn’t until the second paragraph that readers discovered why the Times had devoted several hundred words to her life: Brill was a brilliant rocket scientist who invented a propulsion system to keep communications satellites in orbit, and had recently been awarded the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. Among the questions the obituary—and consequent outcry—prompted were, Who are the role models for today’s female scientists, and where can we find the stories that cast them in their true light?      

Headstrong delivers a powerful, global, and engaging response. Covering Nobel Prize winners and major innovators, as well as lesser-known but hugely significant scientists who influence our every day, Rachel Swaby’s vibrant profiles span centuries of courageous thinkers and illustrate how each one’s ideas developed, from their first moment of scientific engagement through the research and discovery for which they’re best known. This fascinating tour reveals 52 women at their best—while encouraging and inspiring a new generation of girls to put on their lab coats.

• ISBN10: 0553446797
• ISBN13: 9780553446791
• Publish Date: 7 April 2015
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Broadway Books (A Division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc)
• Format: Paperback (US Trade)
• Pages: 288
• Language: English
• URL: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/isbn/9780553446791

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

A collection of short biographies highlighting 52 women who changed science - many of them Nobel prize winners - that most people have probably never heard of.  Or, at least, never heard of in relation to their scientific accomplishments.     Most everybody of a certain age or with a fondness for old movies knows Hedy Lamar as a siren of Hollywood movies; fewer know she developed and held the patent for the technology that makes wi-fi and cellular phones possible.  Literature and poetry readers will recognise Ada Lovelace as the daughter of Lord Byron but how many of those same readers know her paper on Babbage's Analytical Engine is considered "the most important paper in the history of digital computing before modern times.", or that she wrote the first computer program?  Ever.   All of these women were amazing not only for their accomplishments in a time when women didn't accomplish much beyond home and hearth, and not only because they accomplished these achievements in the most male dominated of all the fields in a male dominated world.  They were amazing because they just did what they wanted to do.  They didn't wail, gnash their teeth, or whine, or cajole.  They just got on with their passions and went around anyone who got in their way.  An astonishing number of them worked for free.  All of them kicked ass.   I shy away from calling these women role models: the biographies here are restricted solely to their scientific accomplishments and for all I know some of these women might have been drunks or addicts or gamblers in their private lives.  Certainly Hedy Lamar had a rather colorful, and often pragmatic, love life (which I've read about elsewhere). I'm not judging Hedy for her choices - personally I say more power to her - but her choices are probably choices I'd rather not see my nieces have to confront.  But they are amazing sources of inspiration for all women interested in STEM subjects.  If these women changed the world in a time when they weren't even legally allowed to vote, imagine what similarly headstrong women today can accomplish (and are)?   My favorite quote is from Nobel prize winning physicist Rosalyn Sussman Yallow, who, along with her partner, identified the differences between humans an bovine insulin and developed radioimmunoassay: the process of measuring hormones by looking at their antibodies.   When asked "How does one get past discrimination?" she replied: "Personally, I have never been terribly bothered by it ... if I wasn't going to do it on one way, I'd manage to do it another way."   This was an excellent read in audio.  Fortgang's voice is clear and easy to understand and she reads the material naturally and with spirit. 

[Beth C.]

Women in science. We know they exist, but for some reason, it is rare that they are talked about. When they are, the default scientist tends to be Marie Curie...and yes, she is plenty fascinating, but how much more interesting to have a variety of women scientists to talk to children about? This book would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers, and for homeschoolers, and even just as reading material for those who are curious.

The bios of each scientist are fairly short - 2 or 3 pages at most. We learn the years of their birth and death, where they were from, their full names and their scientific specialty. They are interesting, full of little details that make the scientists seem more like the real people they were, rather than some dry blurb on a page. I easily could have done the review for this book after the first 10-15, since the format is the same - but I was so interested in learning about these amazing women that I waited until I finished the entire book.

Honestly, this is a very interesting book to read, and a vastly overdue one. Science and math need more women, but so many girls believe that it's just not the place for them. Hopefully, this book will be just one of many different ways that they will learn how much they are truly needed.