This book is both good history and good science. It tells the stories of ten 20th-century women scientists whose achievements and contributions to human knowledge were outstanding.

The chosen subjects are a mixture of well-known names (Marie Curie, Rachel Carson, Dorothy Hodgkin) and others who are likely to be unfamiliar to the general reader (Gertrude Elion, Henrietta Leavitt, Elsie Widdowson). Five are American, two from the UK, and the others from Poland/France, Italy and Austria.

Each chapter interweaves a brief biography of its subject with an account of the science, written so as to be accessible to the lay reader. The authors convey well the circumstances of their subjects’ upbringing and education, and the conditions in which they had to work. One theme that comes across is the obstacles that women had to overcome in order to succeed in what was then (and still is, in large part) a man’s world. That said, Whitlock and Evans give due credit to their subjects’ male collaborators and benefactors where appropriate; and they avoid the temptation to turn their subjects into feminist icons. The writing is clear throughout, and refreshingly free of jargon and clichés.

This book is recommended not just as an inspiration for young women who are wondering whether to make a career in the sciences (although it is indeed that), but as an entertaining and informative book for readers of any age with an interest in what scientists do and what makes then tick.