THE CHANGING-ROLE OF WOMEN IN NORTH-AMERICAN MAMMALOGY

The 75th anniversary meeting of The American Society of Mammalogists ( ASM), held in Washington, D.C., in 1994, focused attention on the hist ory of mammalogy. In addition to historical talks presented at the mee ting, a book was published to document the development of the Society and to celebrate the 75th anniversary (Birney and Choate, 1994). Altho ugh the volume offered a generally excellent treatment of the history of the discipline, it made little mention of female mammalogists. This led us to wonder if a lack of recognition was because women have made few significant contributions to the science of mammalogy or if it wa s because the contributions of women have been more difficult to chara cterize and, thus, to document. This special feature endeavors to addr ess this question.