holy shit i have a new appreciation for nonfiction writers the last twenty/thirty pages were simply reference notes and bibliographies like kudos to the author and everyone involved in this book, you did that!!!!

"women in science now" is a testament to the struggles that women face each and every day in the science and technology world, it not only examines these issues but also provides methods of understanding and trying to amend these issues that plague the academia world!

this book was incredibly enlightening and interesting to read as someone who plans to go into scientific research. this was meticulously researched and written and has boosted my standards in what i look for in my nonfiction novels. The drawings, anecdotes, and personal stories from multiple women alongside the facts made for an incredibly engaging book! i don't have any criticism, i don't think i could if i tried like the amount of effort and care that went into crafting this book was just so so admirable. new favorite nonfiction just dropped!

This compilation of essays, interviews, and statistics speaks to the current state and situation of women in various scientific disciplines and spheres in the twenty-first century. Exploring different personal essays each chapter, Munoz uses these essays as jumping-off points for each chapter and the content and societal issues she wants to discuss. Focusing on the larger structural and societal issues of the scientific community and its attitude towards its women members, this book addresses the statistical realities that women in STEM face and explores women scientists’ personal experiences with the challenges of these situations. Munoz’s prose and writing style is concise, clear, and direct, and she weaves anecdotes and statistics seamlessly together in this solid nonfiction text. Including images, text boxes, historical context, and continuous references to the keynote essays in each chapter, Munoz has created a fascinating insight into the reality of being a woman in science in the twenty-first century by drawing several stories of several women in different disciplines together to create the larger whole. A great read for academics and non-academics, members of the STEM fields or not, this book is a strong, powerful insight into the current gender climate and disparities in science as experienced by real women who overcame these odds and obstacles to achieve their current levels of scientific success.

A great book on the state of women in science. This is not just theories and studies, but lots personal stories and profiles of women are presented. This is a must-read for anyone in science, basically. It shows the improvements that have already happened, but also that there's still a long way to go. Hopefully I can contribute to the growth and confidence of women in science as well one day.

Note: I received a free unpublished proof of this book, for a limited time, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.

I know this is also less of a history book and more of a politics book, but I’m really not reading enough politics books to form a space dedicated to them, and nearly every good politics book out there is connected to history somehow.

Unfortunately, I didn’t finish this one either, but I read enough of it that I highly, highly recommend it; especially to anybody who is an educator in the sciences. My professors—of all genders—should probably read this book. Even as someone with experience being a “woman in science”, I learned so much about other women’s experiences and how women of different identities and backgrounds experience different obstacles in science.

This book doesn’t focus a lot on the history of women in science, but if you aren’t familiar with the general ways in which women have always been excluded, it will fill you in on that pretty well. The structure of the book features a lot of interviews and studies, and while I haven’t investigated the quality of the studies, I am planning to purchase the book and look more deeply into it. While you would need to read more historically-focused books to understand the full backdrop of the issues discussed, it’s a good enough primer and probably won’t leave people confused unless they are totally unfamiliar with any social justice issues. In 2023, I would find it a bit surprising if people hadn’t at least heard of most of the issues discussed, even if they don’t fully understand them or believe that they are issues.

Obviously, I’d recommend this book to women, as it’s very cathartic. There’s a lot that women, and likely others who aren’t cis men, can relate to, plus a variety of female perspectives, so I think everyone will learn something new from it. Unfortunately, not much research has been done on the experiences of people who do not fit Western views of cis men and women, but the book acknowledges this later on and mentions that more needs to be done. Sadly I did not get to reading that part and I can’t speak on whether the topic is handled well, but I think that acknowledging it was at least a nice start.

I think men would benefit from the book a lot, not because I think men in science are evil and must be corrected, but because I think a lot of them just aren’t aware of issues outside their own experiences. The book is very engaging and doesn’t talk down to its audience, and also doesn’t read as anti-men. (While I don’t think feminists are inherently anti-men, some feminists absolutely are, and their hatred usually impacts marginalized men the most, so I don’t support that kind of feminism.) I also think that it’s a very interesting and easy-to-read book on the subject, even for people who are busy and don’t have much time to read, though I’d encourage anybody who got something out of it to read more about the topics discussed. If men working in a science department wanted to improve women’s experiences in their department, I’d recommend this book as a good starting point.

Overall, I’m planning to purchase this when it comes out, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone involved in science, especially educators and administrators.

Women in Science Now is an interesting and well written exposition on the state of representation and equity in academia, especially in STEM written and presented by Lisa M. P. Munoz. Released 31st Oct by the Columbia University Press, it's 352 pages and is available in hardcover and ebook formats.

There is a long acknowledged and seemingly intractable disparity of the sexes in STEM fields, men outnumber women, sometimes by huge margins. It's (happily) changing, but very slowly. When I was choosing a career educational path in the early 80s in the USA, I kept getting told over and over that it's a shame that I was good at math and physics because girls couldn't be engineers (so I became an engineer).

The author/editor does a good job of visualizing and describing the disparity and the systems which resists a more equitable workforce in the future -as well as- offering some insights for potentially successful ways to compensate for educational and workplace systems which are passively designed to favor males over females. She has curated essays and personal recollections from female academics and scientists about education, workplace dynamics, eyebrow raising interview questions, and experiences.

Probably the most valuable parts of the book are written as a guide toward possible solutions for mapping, addressing, and fixing some of the issues facing the sciences including workplace environments, mentorship, recruitment, visibility and other issues. These massive and intractable problem areas are broken down into much smaller subchapters and essays and readers will likely come away with a surprising sense of positivity and hopefulness.

There's a lot of work to be done but it's definitely not all bleak and it's getting better is the overall takeaway. The book is fully annotated throughout and the bibliography and reference lists will provide readers with lots of further reading. It's an academic treatise, but perfectly layman accessible and not written in impenetrable academic language. It would definitely make a good support text for classroom use (as well as a good and important read for teachers and professors, mentors and career advisors).

Five stars. The actual essays are collected from a wide variety of scientists and, as such, are varied in style and form, but overall they form a fairly cohesive whole. This would be an excellent choice for public or school library acquisition, as well as home use.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

This book has been super inciteful and the personal stories were perfect to start each chapter. As a woman in science myself, it is important that we continue to tell the stories and talk about the data to continue to break glass ceilings. I see it in my own university with no women PIs with laboratories in my department. We must continue to advocate for women and BIPOCs in stem to bridge the gap.

So nice! I love science, and it's so awesome to read about women in science instead of only men. Very inspiring stories, very motivational for life.

This book is a wonderful validating layered facts in women in a number of science fields. The stories really help connecting and driving home the issues while investing in the story of those scientists. The facts, laws, and changes are up to date and show the evolution women have had. I highly suggest this book to anyone that is a science nerd of is in a science based career field. Excellent and I will read it agin and make notes as well as pull quotes to use in my class

As a former scientist and current teacher, this book was a really interesting read that shed light on a lot of personal experiences I've experienced myself. I think it's a timely book on an important issue in our society, especially as science becomes such a tool for change in our world.

This would be a great read for science teachers, scientists, and anybody interested in gender equity and raising the next generation as strong, empowered individuals. I especially loved the profiles of women scientists from all different backgrounds and disciplines of science. I will probably use some of these scientists in my own teaching to show students the possibilities.

From a constructive perspective, parts of chapter seven about alcohol use at conferences seem like it would be better suited in chapter eight. Chapter nine also seemed a bit slow at parts and could possibly have been more concise. I also would've liked to have seen more discussion about the experiences of other genders as well: how do these circumstances affect non-binary individuals and how can we broaden the discussion?