Pandora's Breeches

Women have always found it hard to be admitted into the scientific establishment, and plenty of books have been written about this. Pandora's Breeches by Patricia Fara is a bit different, as it isn't just about the problems women have had, it is more about showing how they have dealt with these problems at different times. But it also highlights the ambivalent attitude of the establishment to women, excluding them from scientific organisations, while personifying the sciences by female figures - in particular Minerva.

One opportuinity which women had was to write popular accounts of scientific work, especially if they were aimed at young ladies. Thus Fara tells of Priscilla Wakefield's account of Linnaeus's classification (in which she removed his overtly sexual descriptions) and of Emilie du Châtelet (sometimes thought of as just Voltaires mistress), who played a significant part in bringing Newton's Principia to a wider audience. There are also stories of husband and wife working together, such as Elisabetha and Johannes Helvelius and Marie Paulze and Antoine Lavoisier. There are also the siblings Caroline and William Herschel. Pandora's Breeches is a well written book, and I think it would suit anyone who wants to understand science's attitude to women and women's attitude to science over the centuries.