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Her Space, Her Time review: Trailblazing women astronomers

A disdain for misogyny past and present shines through in Shohini Ghose's rich history of women's underappreciated contributions to astronomy and physics

By Bethan Ackerley

18 October 2023

2G6HE5R ANNIE JUMP CANNON (1863-1941) American astronomer and suffragist. about 1920

Astronomer Annie Jump Cannon, pictured around 1920

Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy

Her Space, Her Time
Shohini Ghose (MIT Press)

IT IS perhaps natural, when reading Her Space, Her Time: How trailblazing women scientists decoded the hidden universe, to make comparisons with Hidden Figures. After all, the book’s marketing makes it clear that it was influenced by Margot Lee Shetterly’s acclaimed account of Black women at NASA during the space race. And yes, it leans on a similar metaphor, speaking of “invisible stars here on Earth” who shed light on the unseen cosmos.

But Her Space, Her Time – by Shohini Ghose…

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