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Female Innovators Who Changed Our World (Hardback)

How Women Shaped STEM

P&S History > Social History Women of History

By Emma Shimizu
Imprint: Pen & Sword History
Series: Trailblazing Women
Pages: 168
Illustrations: 16 black and white illustrations
ISBN: 9781526789693
Published: 23rd February 2022
Last Released: 13th July 2022

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We are not all born with equal opportunities. Yet there have been countless of women who have overcome a range of barriers such as prejudice, illness, and personal tragedy to advance our understanding of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). They used their knowledge to change the world, and their stories are fascinating. This book offers a concise introduction of the lives of 46 women, taking you into the cultural and social context of the world they lived in. Through their intelligence, courage, and resilience, they used STEM to defy expectations and inspire generations to follow in their footsteps. Some of them invented items we use day-to-day and discovered causes and treatments for epidemics that ostracised whole sections of society, whilst others campaigned for the reproductive rights of women and harnessed mathematics to send people into space and break ciphers. These women are proof that females can and did have a hugely significant role in shaping the world we live in today.

I thought this was a great book to demonstrate that there is a substantial history of female contribution to the fields of STEM, despite most of them experiencing significant discrimination on the basis of their sex, and many of them also due to their race, religion, country of birth, or even their marital status. If there ever needed to be proof that women have the brains for Science, here it is. Of course for the most part there is only a snippet of each woman's life and her contribution, but there is enough to get a good idea of who she is, and what she achieved.

NetGalley, Melanie Dolhun

4 out of 5

I would definitely recommend the book, so do check it out if you fancy reading on fascinating women who, sometimes, went against the norms.

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[bThis is an excellent collection of vignettes about women who changed the world'. While the usual suspects are included, such as Ada Lovelace, there are several women from all over the world whom Shimizu makes it a point not to ignore, so there's no Western world or recency bias. Informative and more importantly, fun to read. If you're thinking of picking up ' Lessons in chemistry', dont, pick up this one instead. Doesn't gloss over the problems the women faced at all, and gives you an insight into scientific development. Must read! ]Rating[/b]: 5 out of 5 stars

NetGalley, Vansa David

If anyone ever believed that all of the amazing breakthroughs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics were always made by men, this book will set the record straight. Well written and truly inspiring.

Books Monthly

I love that there is a book that shows the role of women in our society. It's so easy to overlook this fact. For each female innovator there is some information offered like enough to pique your interest and then look up for more information but in the same time to not get you bored with details.

NetGalley, Alina Macarie

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Hektoen International Journal - Dr Arpan K Banerjee

The perfect read for women's history month, this incredibly diverse and fascinating book gives you a short biography of incredible women throughout history that have made an impact on our lives through their work in so many different fields.

Incredibly readable, the author gives us a collection here of women throughout history that I had not heard of before, it was refreshing to hear more about women that have done incredible things that wasn't completely american or eurocentric, as I find with these collections there is often a geographical focus, but these historic biographies come from all over the world and different times.

Another thing I appreciated were the 'further reading' sections that introduced you to another innovator that inspired the innovator before in the same field, for example Caroline Herschel is mentioned, Dorothy Hodgkin and many others have paved the way for further female innovators and its something I've not seen in a book before.

NetGalley, Victoria Caswell

Female Innovators Who Changed Our World by Emma Shimizu is a good beginning point for anyone interested in the many women who have made significant contributions in the fields of S.T.E.M., contributions which all too often went unrecognised. The author gives a brief biography of these women and she has gone to great efforts to include a variety of women from all areas of the globe and from a vast range of time periods. While the biographies may be brief they do contain most of the salient details and opened the door to further reading on some particularly interesting characters. While some of the innovators included were household names like Marie Curie , others I had never heard of before, so I found the book to be very educational.

NetGalley, Annette Jordan

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This book was fantastic! As a teacher of a STEM subject and a feminist I’m always looking for examples of female innovators. This book was perfect for me. It included a mix of women if heard of and ones that were new to me.

The book was written in a really reader friendly way. I only meant to read a couple of chapters and next thing I was halfway through!

I will definitely refer to some of the women as examples in lessons to try and encourage more women and girls into STEM!

NetGalley, Emma Fletcher

This book showcases the life stories of forty-six women who have contributed enormously to the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. The comfortable lifestyle of today's day and age would not have not have been possible if not for the contributions made by these great women.

Some of these women were born in the 18th and the 19th century and had to suffer through prejudice and discrimination along with professional issues due to our world being male-dominated especially during that era.

This book should be picked up by every women to remind them of their strength and stop doubting their capabilities. This book should also be picked by every men who consider women's role to be limited within the walls of a kitchen as this book will open their eyes and make them realise that if not for these strong-willed women, many of the luxuries which we take for granted in the 21st century would not even exist and would also help to keep their male ego under control.

NetGalley, Dakshita Matta

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This book offers a concise introduction of the lives of 46 women, taking you into the cultural and social context of the world they lived in. Through their intelligence, courage, and resilience, they used STEM to defy expectations and inspire generations to follow in their footsteps.

The information is short and to the point, very well presented and it is very easy to understand and remember. I was impressed with how short and impactful it is. I loved reading about these women and their achievements and struggles. It made me want to research more about their lives. Also, I felt that it was a nice balance of different STEM subjects mentioned. My main interested were all the women that worked in mathematics and I took notes on some of them, which was great. Moreover, as a mathematics teacher, I think this book will be a strong addition to my classroom and I will definitely discuss it with my students.

It really impressed me and I highly recommend this book! It is great!

NetGalley, Ioana Frunza-Pantiru

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Female Innovators Who Changed Our World profiles 46 female scientists and inventors who changed life for the better. There are six categories of innovation, including Day-to-day Lives, Healthcare, and Protecting the Earth. At the end of each section, there are shorter narratives of additional innovators for further reading.

This book included some very high-profile women inventors, such as Ada Lovelace (computer), Stephanie Kwolak (Kevlar), and Mary Anderson (windshield wipers). This book also included some less famous innovators and noted ones that were African-American or other minority groups. The features describe challenges that the ladies had to overcome to accomplish their success or to receive credit for what they achieved.

Female Innovators Who Changed Our World is very interesting and is a great resource. I recommend that public and school libraries have a copy, in addition to readers’ personal collections. The stories are very inspiring to females who wish to pursue knowledge in science, technology, engineering, and math fields.

NetGalley, Amanda Anthony

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Wow must read for everyone.
Shows how much women have contributed.
The 45 women in this book are inspirational and everybody needs read this book to learn about their journey and what they achieved.
Showing anything is possible and never to give up.

NetGalley, Karen Bull

I think the author did a great amount of research as it is evident by the summaries of bio/contributions in short passages -- that is not an easy achievement. One has to summarize a lot of information and convey it accessibly AND be entertaining. I think the tone was appropriate, it was a mix of informal and technical. It conveyed authoritative voice in the facts, while at the same time feeling like a conversation or lecture. I really think the content is great. I appreciate the work that the author/publisher have done to collect the research on these women and their scientific contributions. I learned a lot!

NetGalley, A Home Library

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About Emma Shimizu

Emma Shimizu is a half-Japanese, half-British engineer who has had a passion for improving lives and sharing her love of STEM since her teenage years. She studied Materials Science and Engineering at university, specialising in tissue engineering and materials used in healthcare. Emma has been an active STEM ambassador for several years, and especially enjoys working with schools to introduce how science and engineering is used to shape our day-to-day lives. Emma currently works for a paediatric medical device manufacturer, liaising with different departments to plan and develop new products. Having a keen interest in promoting partnerships between industry and academia, Emma has been honoured to be a guest speaker for a university bioengineering module and take part in industrial liaison. She lives in Sheffield with her husband who is also an engineer, and cat Elsa who is not.

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