Femininity, mathematics and science, 1880-1914

About this book

Through the prism of gender, this book examines the contrasting cultures and practices of mathematics and science in the decades surrounding 1900 and asks how they impacted on women. Claire Jones explores ideas about women's intellect and femininity and assesses how these attitudes shaped women's experiences as students and practitioners. Particular attention is paid to women studying mathematics at Cambridge and the repercussions of their relative success on the pass lists. Although the focus is firmly on women, the book also engages with issues of masculinity, identifying a culture of manliness within the laboratory and analysing the gender politics of the Royal Society of London, which almost elected a woman in 1902, but actually had no female Fellow until 1945. Using sources including institutional records, letters, memoirs, journalistic and fictional accounts, Jones offers fresh insights into the operation of gender within science and mathematics between c1880 and 1914.