Crosspost: Journey to the stars: the personal stories of women in astronomy

 Written by Karel Green for physicsworld

Go the distance in The Sky Is For Everyone women talk about their lives in astronomy, describing the good, the bad and the ugly. (Credit: iStock/Allexxandar)

As recently as the 1970s, the field of astronomy was so dominated by men that telescope facilities didn’t even have women’s toilets. Ann Merchant Boesgaard – who spent much of her research career studying the stars from telescopes on Hawaii after completing her PhD in 1966 – had to campaign for this basic amenity to be installed, as well as women’s dormitories for when they had to do overnight data collection.

Now an award-winning astronomer at the University of Hawaii, Boesgaard is one of 37 women who have shared their research journey in The Sky Is For Everyone: Women Astronomers in Their Own Words. Edited by American astronomers Virginia Trimble from the University of California, Irvine, and David A Weintraub of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, The Sky Is For Everyone is an anthology focusing on the stories and experiences of women in astronomy, both past and present – and it manages to fit a staggering amount of information into its 504 pages.

Before you get to the personal stories of current astronomers that make up the bulk of this book, there is an important introductory chapter entitled “Beginnings”. It provides a special reference, not only to the women featured in its pages, but also to those who could not be – and why...

Read the rest of Green's book review at: https://physicsworld.com/a/journey-to-the-stars-the-personal-stories-of-women-in-astronomy/