Wonder Women
25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History
Hardcover | Kindle Edition
Written by Sam Maggs
Illustrated by Sophia Foster-Dimino
Publisher: Quirk Books
Publication Date: October 4th, 2016
This is definitely the age of the woman. We are so close to having a woman president for the FIRST time! Of course, it’s long overdue. It’s also Wonder Woman’s 75th anniversary. So it is appropriate that Quirk Books have released this “wonder” of a book called Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs.
Although it says 25 women, there are so many more women in here than that, including some Q&As with some incredible females. Without these gender rule-breaking phenomenons, women would not be doctors (thank you Blackwell sisters in the 19th century!), we would not have paper bags (thank you Margaret Knight!), and the feeding tube would be fiction (thank you Bessie Blount Griffin!). And there’s so much more. You think of how hard women have it now, fighting stereotypes in this man’s world to this day, and you just marvel at the success through the struggle during less enlightened times.
More below.
I’m ashamed at how much I did not know before. I pride myself on being a well-read, intelligent woman, and yet I had no prior knowledge of most of the amazing accomplishments of these women. As a teacher, you are supposed to ascertain the prior knowledge, assumptions, or misconceptions of your students before you embark on a new topic, and it is telling that the only women that I had even heard of (that are not even the main 25) were Sacagawea, Nellie Bly, Marie Curie, and Amelia Earhart.
Not only does Maggs present their awesomeness with a sardonic wit needed to deride the patriarchal stage these fantastic women performed on, she is the gender defender at every turn. If only these brainiac ladies had Maggs by their side in their own time.
I read the book for this review. But I am going to read one “Wonder Woman” a night to both my 5-year-old daughter for her to imagine her potential, but also to my 12-year-old son, so that he might grow to be as big a feminist as his father (already the staunch gender defender himself).
This is a wonderful and necessary read.
Synopsis:
A fun and feminist look at forgotten women in science, technology, and beyond, from the bestselling author of THE FANGIRL’S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY
You may think you know women’s history pretty well. But have you ever heard of. . .
· Alice Ball, the chemist who developed an effective treatment for leprosy””only to have the credit taken by a man?
· Mary Sherman Morgan, the rocket scientist whose liquid fuel compounds blasted the first U.S. satellite into orbit?
· Huang Daopo, the inventor whose weaving technology revolutionized textile production in China””centuries before the cotton gin?
Smart women have always been able to achieve amazing things, even when the odds were stacked against them. In Wonder Women, author Sam Maggs tells the stories of the brilliant, brainy, and totally rad women in history who broke barriers as scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors. Plus, interviews with real-life women in STEM careers, an extensive bibliography, and a guide to women-centric science and technology organizations””all to show the many ways the geeky girls of today can help to build the future.
Table of Contents:
Women of Science
Women of Medicine
Women of Espionage
Women of Innovation
Women of Adventure
No Comments »
No comments yet.
RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL
Leave a comment