Rosalyn Yalow, Nobel Laureate: A Biographical Memoir

As someone who is concerned with how gender influences our movement within society and our personal development, I found this book fascinating. To say nothing of the fact that this is one of very few books about a woman of intellect and emotional control of daunting proportions. As a woman physician, this book provided insight into my own development and future path. But as a woman, I hope men read this book. The insights go far beyond medicine, or careers, to the center of the gender issues that face us all.

Rosalyn Yalow, from a poor uneducated family in the Bronx, and educated in the New York City public school system, became the first American educated woman to make it to the top in science or medicine. A nuclear physicist who never took a course in biology, she developed a method to identify and measure vanishingly small amounts of almost any substance in body fluids and tissues. As a result her work revolutionized virtually every aspect of medicine and biomedical science. What did it take to succeed in universities, hospitals, and scientific establishments that were completely dominated by men and male culture? What price did she pay? What barriers still stand in the way of women in these fields? This book speaks to these questions and more. It provides a searching and sensitive portrait of an overpowering woman who stood alone, fought for her place, and guided other women to follow their dreams and abilities. Yet the book is about human relationships; motherhood, marriage, partnership, and especially Yalow's relationship with herself. It is also about the ongoing struggle to achieve equal opportunity for all people. It reads like a novel, with a poetic feel for words and structure. Even the science is seamless and available to readers with little or no scientific background. Here is a great book about a great woman who is not an actress, not a heiress, not a figure in a political scandal, but a towering intellectual figure who changed the world. I couldn't put it down. Read it, then give it to your kids. Especially the young adult boys and girls.