A World Without Women: The Christian Clerical Culture of Western Science

Isaac Newton identified women with the devil. The male-dominated culture of Western science, writes Noble, has systematically excluded women from doing serious research, and even today female scientists face discrimination and marginalization. In a pioneering study, Noble, who teaches the history of science at York University in Toronto, argues that Western science took shape within the clerical, ascetic culture of the medieval Latin Church, in revolt against the very different situation for women that existed during the first millennium, when an androgynous Christian ideal was taken seriously and aristocratic women gained significant control over property. Noble overstates his case in maintaining that science is in essence a religious calling, more a continuation of than a departure from the Christian tradition. Nevertheless, his exciting history draws vital links between the origins of the scientific enterprise, the way basic research is conducted, the tenor of modern scientific thought and the longstanding effort to subdue the feminine in society and nature. (May)