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A review by ralovesbooks
A Lab of One's Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War by Patricia Fara
3.0
"Resilience rivalled brilliance as an essential qualification for earning a scientific living."
A Lab of One's Own, by Patricia Fara, is an in-depth exploration of the intersection of women's suffrage and scientific ambition in England up to and during WWI. As I finished the book, I reflected on the immense obstacles that the women of history overcame in order to hold their own in academia, the research laboratory, and the operating room. It reminded me of The Woman Who Smashed Codes, by Jason Fagone, how the women worked tirelessly and often without credit. Despite progress in voting rights and earning doctorate degrees, I was struck by how much has persisted in the challenges of being a professional woman: accusations of being masculine, pressure to maintain family and household, and lower pay for equal work. Indeed, when women went to work in munitions factories, the work was immediately downgraded as "unskilled" in order to justify the lower pay! Guh. Here's to keeping on keeping on.
A Lab of One's Own, by Patricia Fara, is an in-depth exploration of the intersection of women's suffrage and scientific ambition in England up to and during WWI. As I finished the book, I reflected on the immense obstacles that the women of history overcame in order to hold their own in academia, the research laboratory, and the operating room. It reminded me of The Woman Who Smashed Codes, by Jason Fagone, how the women worked tirelessly and often without credit. Despite progress in voting rights and earning doctorate degrees, I was struck by how much has persisted in the challenges of being a professional woman: accusations of being masculine, pressure to maintain family and household, and lower pay for equal work. Indeed, when women went to work in munitions factories, the work was immediately downgraded as "unskilled" in order to justify the lower pay! Guh. Here's to keeping on keeping on.