ancient Greece and continues into Roman times, the medieval convents, Renaissance society, and the university laboratories of the Victorian era. Mozans traces the intellectual enfranchisement of women and their accomplishments as scientists and inventors in physics, chemistry, mathematics, astronomy, the natural sciences, archaeology, medicine and surgery, and other fields. Only occasionally does he lapse into statements that show the restrictions of his own culture - his view, for instance, that one of the most desirable goals for society was an intellectually liberated woman who would then be able to sympathize with "the noblest aims" of her husband. Overall, the book is surprisingly contemporary in outlook.

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