I think everybody knows that throughout the history of science, women have been barred from participating and achieving success in the sciences. Margaret Wertheim, however, details exactly how aspiring female scientists have faced male prejudice, and how prevalent that prejudice has been. It almost makes one embarrassed to be male.

This is a fine book. It details the history of institutionalised male chauvinism in science - and specifically physics - but without grinding axes. This is not a feminist tome - Wertheim lets the stories speak for themselves, from injustices of the Pythagorean era through to the Renaissance and beyond. It is also the story of how the whole sphere of Western education has been slanted against women, stemming largely from the application of Christian beliefs, making it far more difficult for women to succeed in any academic field. As Wertheim postulates, perhaps part of this is because, for the last 400 years, "science" and "femininity" have been seen as polar opposites: the rational, cool, dispassionate male scientific method versus intuitive, subjective, caring female passion. It's certainly something to think about.

And in case you think that institutionalised prejudice against women is a thing of the past, don't forget that even in the late 1960s  there were still Universities in America where woman were not permitted to gain degrees; the number of female Nobel laureates can be counted on one hand; and for some reason the names Jocelyn Bell and Rosalind Franklin pop into my head.

The only slight problem I found with the book comes towards the end when, looking at the way that physics is heading, Wertheim argues that the time is ripe for a more feminine way of doing science, a synergy of the sexes towards a better understanding of the Universe. One could counter that even if the scientific method is purely a product of masculine thinking, it has been devastatingly successful as the most powerful tool humans have ever had for improving their understanding of their world and the cosmos. So on the face of it, there seems little reason to change it.

But then, I am male....