Intimate inmates - Wives, households, and science in nineteenth century America

Historians have found that during the nineteenth century many women were in volved in the sciences; but regardless of their contributions they were usu ally denied formal membership in the scientific community. Looking at scien ce as a culture, rather than as an intellectual activity, shows that some w omen were ensconced within a community that formally excluded them. In one sense the wives, sisters, mothers, and daughters of male scientists were he ld captive by a sociocultural context that recognized only the male partici pants; in another sense they were intimates of the scientific community, an d as insiders they were able to use an exclusive and predominantly male ins titution to advance their family and personal goals.