Women in STEM

"In the early 1800s, women were dying in large numbers from treatable diseases because they avoided receiving medical care. Examinations performed by male doctors were often demeaning and even painful. In addition, women faced stigma from illness--a diagnosis could greatly limit their ability to find husbands, jobs or be received in polite society. Motivated by personal loss and frustration over inadequate medical care, Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth...

The little-known true story of the unexpected and remarkable contributions to astronomy made by a group of women working in the Harvard College Observatory from the late 1800s through the mid-1900s.-- "In the late nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group consisted of the...

A Hollywood biopic about the life of computer pioneer Grace Murray Hopper (1906—1992) would go like this: a young professor abandons the ivy-covered walls of academia to serve her country in the Navy after Pearl Harbor and finds herself on the front lines of the computer revolution. She works hard to succeed in the all-male computer industry, is almost brought down by personal problems but survives them, and ends her career as a celebrated

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The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada's father, who was infamously "mad, bad, and dangerous to know, " Ada's mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada's mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education...

What do Hedy Lamarr, composer George Antheil, and your cell phone have in common? The answer is spread-spectrum radio. Without this technology, we would not have the digital comforts that we take for granted today. Only a writer of Pulitzer Prize-winner Richard Rhodes's caliber could do justice to this remarkable story. Unhappily married to a Nazi arms dealer, Hedy Lamarr fled to America at the start of World War II. She brought with her not only...

The definitive biography of Sally Ride, America's first woman in space, by the ABC reporter who covered NASA during its transformation from a test-pilot boys' club to a more inclusive elite. This is a rich portrait of a fascinating woman whose life intersected with revolutionary social and scientific changes in America. Warm and admiring but unsparing, it makes this extraordinarily talented and bold woman, an inspiration to millions, come alive.

In the 1840s, acclaimed self-taught palaeontologist Mary Anning works alone on the wild English coastline. She hunts for common fossils to sell to rich tourists to support herself. When one such tourist arrives in Lyme, he entrusts Mary with the care of his young wife Charlotte, who is recuperating from a personal tragedy. Despite their differences, it is the beginning of a passionate and all-consuming love affair that will defy all social bounds...

Looks back at Jane Goodall's career as a primatologist, animal rights advocate, and environmental activist. Comprised of present-day interview segments with Goodall and archival footage of her work studying chimpanzees at Tanzania's Gombe National Park shot by Hugo van Lawick in the 1960s for National Geographic.

"During World War II, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate jet velocities and plot missile trajectories, they recruited an elite group of young women--known as human computers--who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design and helped bring about America's first ballistic missiles. But they were never interested in developing weapons--their hearts lay in...