Our Science, Ourselves

"When Christa Kuljian arrived on the Harvard College campus as a first-year student in the fall of 1980 with copies of Our Bodies, Ourselves and Ms. magazine, she was concerned that the women's movement had peaked in the previous decade. She soon learned, however, that there was a long way to go in terms of achieving justice for women and that social movements would continue to be a critical force in society. She began researching the history of science and gender biases in science, and how they intersect with race, class, and sexuality. In Our Science, Ourselves, Kuljian tells the origin story of feminist science studies by focusing on the life histories of six key figures-Ruth Hubbard, Rita Arditti, Evelyn Fox Keller, Evelynn Hammonds, Anne Fausto-Sterling, and Banu Subramaniam. These women were part of a trailblazing network of female scientists in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s in the Boston area. Inspired by the social and political activism of the women's movement, they began to write and teach about women in science, gender and science, and sexist and racist bias and exclusion. Drawing on a rich array of sources, Kuljian chronicles and celebrates the contributions that these women have made to our collective scientific knowledge and our view of the world"--