[note note_color=”#fffdf1″ text_color=”#4f4c53″]Wonder Women: 25 Innovators, Inventors, and Trailblazers Who Changed History by Sam Maggs • October 4, 2016 • Quirk Books
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Ever heard of Allied spy Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim woman whom the Nazis considered “highly dangerous”? Or German painter and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian, who planned and embarked on the world’s first scientific expedition? How about Huang Daopo, the inventor who fled an abusive child marriage only to revolutionize textile production in China?
Women have always been able to change the world, even when they didn’t get the credit. In Wonder Women, author Sam Maggs introduces you to pioneering female scientists, engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors—each profile a study in passion, smarts, and stickto-itiveness, complete with portraits by Google doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino, an extensive bibliography, and a guide to present-day women-centric STEM organizations.[/note]
[note note_color=”#BFD1D1″ text_color=”#ffffff”]I received this book for free from Quirk Books for review consideration. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.[/note]
First sentence: “Representation is important.”
Where are the women in our history? Why aren’t we taught more about them? I don’t remember being taught a lot about women in school (other than the Suffrage Movement and Rosa Parks), and that’s a damn shame. The history that was taught to everybody were about white males who supposedly conquered, discovered, taught, and invented everything that we know in the world, and that’s totally wrong. We should be focusing on women—scientists, engineers, adventurers, inventors, and mathematicians—who’ve made a huge difference in the world too, and Wonder Women introduces readers to them.
THINGS YOU’LL MOST LIKELY DO AFTER READING WONDER WOMEN
- Admire these wonderful women.
“I want to grow up to be like these ladies.” You gotta be in awe of these women. They have accomplished things that have changed so many lives during a time when women were treated terribly and were not allowed opportunities due to their sex. They have done what most men could not. It’s incredibly encouraging to read about these smart women.
- Want to learn more about these incredibly badass ladies.
Meet these fabulous and smart ladies—scientists, inventors, mathematicians, mountaineers, engineers, and spies (to name a few). Wonder Women introduces readers to ladies such as Ada Lovelace, a British Mathematician and Programmer, who was the first computer programmer when she coded an algorithm for Charles Babbage’s early mechanical computer; Emmy Noether, a German mathematician and Physicist, who contributed an important theory in physics that explained that energy can “neither be created or destroyed”; Marie Equi, an American doctor and Birth Control Advocate, who focused on women’s reproductive health, fought for class and gender equal rights, and had many relationships with women; Mary Bowser, an Black American spy, who spied for the Union, sending any information she received about the Confederate; Huang Daopo, who was the Chinese Textile pioneer; Annie Smith Peck, an American mountaineer, who climbed mountains despite the lack of support; and there’s so many more women who readers need to know in this book.
- Curse the patriarchy.
How many times have women been denied rights because of their sex? How many were not allowed to go to University? How many were denied a salary? How many women have had their work taken from them by men? A lot. History is full of men denying women’s accomplishments and taking credit of their work, and that really angers me (and hopefully you too). However, people are now recognizing women’s accomplishments and giving them the credit they deserve. Wonder Women is just one book doing that. Let’s hope for more.
- Let these women inspire you.
If these women can code, create their own hospitals, save lives, or climb the tallest mountains in a time when women were not given equal rights and were treated inferior to men, then you can too can achieve your goals if you assert yourself. It’ll take hard work, but you can do it!
Should you read Wonder Women? YES. You’ll want to learn about these fabulous and smart women who have accomplished so many things that changed the world. Wonder Women profiles five women in history for each chapter—Science, Medicine, Espionage, Innovation, and Adventure—and interviews with present day women-centric STEM organizations. This is the history you’ll want to read. Let these women inspire you.
WONDER WOMEN sounds like a book that’s right up my alley! As a kid, I was always into books that taught me about history and important historical figures. As a grown up gal, I think that it would be really awesome to read something in that vein that features exclusively women! Cannot wait to check this out.
I’ve seen this book around lately and it sounds amazing! It will definitely shines a light on women’s accomplishment and would show that YES WE CAN DO IT. It raises awareness of how capable women are, and would definitely motivate younger girls!