This book was published in the early seventies. Its purpose was to make public the contributions that women had made to mathematics over the course of the centuries. The purpose is laudable, and the effort is worthwhile. It is a worthy precursor of more contemporary books. However, the chapters are really just capsule biographies with a somewhat fabulous quality. The biographies do not give sufficient background so that the general tenor of the mathematical contributions can be understood. As usual, Emmy Noether's invention of Noetherian induction is completely omitted, although it was because of this significant contribution to logic and computer science that I first learned about her.

The female mathematicians are Hypatia, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Emilie de Breteuil, Marquise du Chatelet, Caroline Herschel, Sophie Germain, Mary Fairfax Somerville, Sonya Kovalevskaia, Emmy Noether. ( )

I don't like to give this only a 3-star rating. I suspect that when it came out it was a bit of a groundbreaking work, and there is nothing really _wrong_ with it ... it's just that the book leaves one wanting a great deal more. The mathematical work of these women is not really explored -- this is more of a glance at the difficulties women throughout history have encountered venturing into a realm "traditionally" dominated by men. ( )