Avenging Agnodice: The Struggles and Successes of Female Scientists, Antiquity to Present - Paperback

by Nancy L. Swanson (Author)

Throughout history the environment for female scientists has been at best exclusionary, at worst it has been openly hostile. Why would anyone voluntarily expose themselves to an environment where they are unwanted and unwelcome? What were the obstacles the women scientists had to overcome and how did they succeed to the extent that we even know their names? This book is an attempt to answer these questions, both for women of the past and the present.

Author Biography

Dr. Nancy Swanson graduated magna cum laude from Western Washington University with a B.S. degree in physics and math. She received her Ph.D. in physics from The Florida State University. Dr. Swanson worked for eleven years as a research scientist at a Navy laboratory. At the laboratory she served on the Inter-Laboratory Independent Research panel for five years, evaluating and awarding basic research grants. She holds five U.S. patents and is the author of over 30 scientific publications. Her research interests were in the area of laser light transmission and scattering through optically dense media. Dr. Swanson has taught math and physics at business schools, community colleges and universities. She currently teaches at Fairhaven College, a division of Western Washington University.