CONTEMPORARY WOMEN SCIENTISTS OF AMERICA

Admiring but drab summaries of the professional lives of nine women scientists. Noble skirts areas of possible controversy or negative implications: Dixie Lee Ray is lauded for speaking up for safety as AEC head, with no hint that environmentalists find her record far from perfect; and Margaret Mead's marriages aren't mentioned except for the relatively long-lasting one with Bateson--though with meteorologist Joanne Simpson, her next subject, Noble emphasizes that two of her marriages failed and professional cooperation in a third was precluded by the anti-nepotism policy whereby husband and wife could not be employed by the same university. Others in Noble's list suffered also from the nepotism rule or from more direct discrimination; a few are active in women's causes but most seen content to serve as examples. Noble makes a point of going into the women's professional accomplishments as well as their honors, with a little background on their areas of specialization, but neither the personal nor the intellectual struggles are vivified.