Columbia University sociologist Jonathan Cole credits his mother
for the reference to Gray's "Elegy" which provides the book's
charming title (pun intended) and its leitmotif: while women
scientists were clearly discriminated against in the past, the
academic community now "distributes its resources and rewards in an
equitable fashion," though the results show some puzzling
anomalies. Where residual inequality persists, without doubt, is in
rank and salary: women are not promoted as fast or as high in the
hierarchy; and at equal rank, they are not paid as well. These
conclusions derive from Cole's detailed study of some 600 men and
women who acquired Ph.D.s in 1957 and 1958 in the physical,
biological, and social sciences. Men and women were matched for
specialty, year of degree, and degree-granting university. They
were followed over the next decade or so with careful measures of
performance (quzlity and quantity of papers published), honors,
recognition, and the like. Cole's data reveals that there was no
discrimination in terms of access to elite graduate schools or
fellowships. But he found that - for reasons unknown - women
generally were less well recognized and produced fewer and less
notable publications. His explorations of the many variables which
influence women's choices and paths through the system, his clear
delineation between conjecture and fact, and his impeccable
handling of data are models of analysis. Yes, there are thickets of
correlation coefficients and regression analyses, the inevitable
tables and charts, and some closely argued points which together
establish the book as a work of scholarship. But Cole as expositor
and clarifier is excellent. When he deals with imponderables like
colleague Robert Merton's "haunting presence of functionally
irrelevant statuses" (essentially the dilemma of dissonance of
status and career - black physician, female scientist, etc.), when
he reviews the contribution of IQ or traces the development of
women in science against a century's changing cultural values, he
mines a rich lode of ideas which underscores the subtlety and
sophistication of his thinking. He does, in the end, argue
cautiously for maintaining some forms of affirmative action for
women, fully aware of the problems that beset any attempt to lump
all minorities together. Shrewd and sturdy. (Kirkus Reviews)
Presents a survey of women's role in the scientific community.
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