The March of Women: From the Body to the Stars

The Secrets of Women addresses the exploration of female anatomy in Italy towards the end of the Middle Ages and how it helped to define the cultural and religious perceptions of the body. Considered both a holy vessel and at the same time, subject to mortal illness, the human body was in many ways considered a mystery. Through dissections of women, for purposes such as embalming or caesarean section, a history and understanding of human anatomy, illness, and reproductive processes was born. Secrets of Women examines the dual concepts of holiness and female corporeality by following the case studies and stories of some of the women who were dissected—from the holy body of a revered abbess to the body of a convicted criminal.

" This book… argues that women’s bodies, real and imagined, played a central role in the history of anatomy during that time. Urgent question about where babies came from and how they were conceived spurred physicians and surgeons to open human corpses and to write about them. In the process, what male writers knew as the “secrets of women” came to symbolize the most difficult intellectual challenges posed by human bodies: challenges that dissection promised to overcome."

 -The Secrets of Women by Katherine Park (MIT Press, 2006)

 

Almost Heaven looks at another kind of exploration all together, but one that still remains as mysterious to us today as medical anatomy did to early scientists—the exploration of space. Kevles gives us an in depth look into the lives of female astronauts and cosmonauts, their efforts  to change the space program against a back drop of Cold War fears and the women’s movement’s sense of empowerment.  Based on interviews and extensive research, Kevles paints a colorful and detailed history of women’s pursuit of the final frontier.

" This book is about women in space and their struggle, not altogether over, to join on an equal footing with men in what is perhaps the greatest adventure of our time. Every one of these women is remarkable, and each has bravely met two challenges—the risk of space travel and struggle to succeed in what was formerly a man’s world. Together they have changed the cast of human exploration."

-Almost Heaven: The Story of Women in Space by Bettyann Holtzmann Kevles (MIT Press, 2006)