Female Innovators Who Changed Our World

by Emma Shimizu

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.

Genres: Nonfiction, Feminism, History, Science

168 pages, Hardcover

Published February 28, 2022

Reviews

[Maja - BibliophiliaDK ✨ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was one of those times, when a book had a great premise but a not so great execution. I loved the aim of shining a light on women in STEM. The contribution of female scientists and inventors needs more limelight - especially if we want more girls to go into STEM. But while I support the aim of this book, I wish it would have been carried out a bit differently. I found the groupings of the women somewhat random at times. And I was slightly confused by the layout and editing. The 'further reading' women (and a single man) were thrown in randomly throughout the narration instead of grouping them together, either at the end of a chapter or at the end of the book. While these things might seem small, they were distracting me from the actual subject, and that's just sad.

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

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[Ava Lovelace · Rating 5 out of 5]

(First of all, thank you so much NetGalley and Publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest opinion)

As a woman scientist, I'm so glad to read this book with which I learn a lot of more important women innovators. I love to know better women like Rosalind Frankling, Marie Curie but also with this book I got to know a lot of women I didn't heard in my life, that they were awsome and do a great job that change our world. It's crazy that people don't know that they even existed. It's crazy that you read papers and you imagine a man after a surname. So I think this book and similars are so important for people to read.

[Patrícia · Rating 2 out of 5]

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

2,5*

I need to stop reading this type of book. I will give it to the writer, this was the best attempt of the genre that I have read and is honestly "not that bad". It is what says it is, a "concise introduction of the lives of 46 women". Unfortunately for books of the kind is very hard to a give short introduction without it resembling a wikipedia page.
There was a couple of things in here that I liked and a couple of things I disliked. First of all I'm gonna ignore the fact that there's a man in here, second I wasn't a big fan of the structure that decided to quote women in the middle of the chapters as "further reading" and it felt a bit random as to why some women were main part of this book and others were further reading.

Overall it was okay but everytime I pick up a book like this I always expect more than I get and I would honestly not buy this. It didn't feel enough to be more than a couple of articles online.

[Sheida · Rating 2 out of 5]

Those of us who have the inclination to go into science are not always destined to make major discoveries, invent things, or become pioneers in our fields. But, like Lovelace, we should show passion for what we do, communicate well and make steps, no matter how big or small, to inspire future generations.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book

I'm sorry to say that, as excited as I was to be reading this, I ended up DNFing it at 40%. I just wasn't a fan of the writing style or the overall structure of the book. It read like random wikipedia entries that were grouped together in a seemingly illogical way and there was no proper format to the book. Some entires were 3 paragraphs and quite concise, the others were multiple pages and tried to make connections and offer deep insight into our lives as well as telling a factual historic story.

I think the concept is a great one and I'm all for gathering collections of female achievements throughout history but the book really could have used a better editor. I mean, why are the women behind the bullet-proof vest, the polio vaccine, and an early Islam mathematician all grouped up in the chapter titled "our day-to-day lives" which begins with someone inventing the furnace? I just was not able to connect with the book after that chapter and how much it jumped around to be honest. Also, I'm not sure if it's just in the ARC or if the actual book is going to have the pictures be at the end as an appendix but I wish the pictures were with the actual text and were used to actually break up the huge text blocks rather than providing an afterthought.

[Dev · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley

This honestly wasn't the best one of these mini-biography books that I've read but I've read a LOT of them and I think this one is still pretty well written so I decided to go with a 4 star rating. I agree with some other reviewers that I don't think it's very well organized but I think there's a lot of good information here and I did learn about several women that I hadn't heard of before which is always what I'm looking for when I pick one of these up so overall I'd still consider it a good book. Definitely a good book to pick up if you're looking for a fairly light but still informative read.

[Victoria · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.

I think sometimes it can be a little dense and I am not to keen on how the structure works, however this book gives you a look at such a plethora of incredible female innovators and inspiring women who really pushed the boundaries for generations to come, and makes me want to know more about them so I do appreciate the introduction!

(Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC for honest review).

[Melody Schwarting · Rating 3 out of 5]

Female Innovators Who Changed Our World introduces the lives of a few dozen women whose contributions to science affected their fields and our lives. Shimizu, being an engineer herself, handles the world of science well, with its politics and collaborative complications. She provides a good amount of nuance, even in short doses like these biographical sketches. She also focused on ancient women and non-Western women more than similar books I've read, which was excellent.

For me, the execution of this book as a book was where the quality fell. A higher-quality production, laid out more like an encyclopedia of biography with lots of color and images on the page, would have prevented the dry feeling that comes from a total lack of page design. Science often has highly visual components, and the black-and-white photo insert is just not enough. (Not to mention most of these women have portraits, thought few make it into the book.) Like many women within its covers, this book felt like the publisher didn't care enough to make its path easy in the world.

Yet, if your kitchen is arranged in a sink-stove-fridge triangle (Lillian Moller Gilbreth), or you've ever used a computer (Ada Byron Lovelace, Grace Hopper, numerous others), or you've benefited from windshield wipers (Mary Anderson), or you've encountered a newborn baby since the 1950s (Virginia Apgar) a female STEM innovator has changed your life. You can learn about these women and many more here, with good references and names to explore for further reading.

[Ioana · Rating 5 out of 5]

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!

[Annette Jordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

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.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. The tone is conversational, and whatever science there is, is explained in plain language. Although there were times in the book where I lost the thread a little due to what I thought was awkward wording, by-and-large the book is well written. The book is more about the obstacles faced by these women than it is about the innovations themselves, which is fine, as I feel that the author wants to be inspirational. What I liked best about the book is its very broad scope, through time, subject and geography. Thank you to Netgalley and Pen & Sword, Pen & Sword History for the advance reader copy.

[Ida]

Note: I no longer put stars on my reviews.

This is a quick read, with concise, encyclopedia-like entries. Many of the women and their work were familiar to me: Rosalind Franklin’s DNA discoveries and Ada Lovelace’s early coding algorithms. Other passages were revelations. For instance, I learned about Alice Parker, an African American woman born in 1885, who filed the first patent for a thermostat-controlled central heating system. Invention has never been limited to one gender, even if credit has been.

The book also includes plentiful references for further reading.

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

The subject of this book is very important, but I didn't love the execution. The organization (specifically that of the further reading sections and the pictures) didn't make much sense to me and overall most of this read more like a textbook than compelling narratives about historical women. Some sections were more engaging (Chapter 2 and Chapter 7) but overall getting through this was a bit of a struggle.

[Manuela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick overview of some amazing women accomplishments throughout the history

It was a nice quick read about great female innovators. Not very in-depth, but just enough to make you interested about the women she writes about. Writing overuse of :'whilst' bothered me a little, but overall a fast and pleasant read.