Meet Mary Summerfield , Ph.D. In 1956 , she was one of what American Girl magazine called “ thousands of girls now help as professional scientists . ” Dr. Summerfield cerebrate more young adult female ( er , girls ) would see skill as a career but were afraid it would depict them unfeminine spinsters . That ’s why the caption on her mental picture stressed she was a “ inquiry physicist — and homemaker ” who thought “ Cosmic rays and cake baking are both lots of fun . ” Here ’s how some other women ’s mags from the 1950s bear witness that careers in science could be downright girly .
Dr. Gladys Hobby was a Vassar graduate who received her M.D. at Columbia . In 1952 , Woman ’s Home Companion report how she “ tend G of flaskful — as solicitous about her molds as an unquiet mother might be about a sick infant . ” The same article also noted that chemicals were compounded during drug company inquiry “ in the promise that they will have worthful properties — just as an experimental James Cook will fabricate a new cake in the hope it will try good . ” In other words , whipping up a batch of cupcakes gave you much all the background you needed to be a miss scientist . “ How do you make out in the kitchen ? ” Seventeen asked lector in 1951 . “ A good pill roller needs the kind of imagination , ingeniousness and solitaire that fix a expert cook . ”
No cooking skills ? A career in scientific discipline might still be for you . “ One scientist ( male person ) say to us [ Seventeen magazine again ] , ‘ woman in science ? Yes , I retrieve they ’re fine . You should see the dexterous means those girls manage animals in the laboratory . ’ Another one ( also male person ) assured us women ’s power for minute oeuvre came in ready to hand on many an experimentation . ” Nimble - finger girls could hoodwink those science lab rats and fresh trial tubes like nobody ’s line of work . Oh , await , you did n’t desire to actually be in charge did you ?

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