Ruth Schwartz Cowan is a historian specializing in the fields of science, technology, and medicine. Her scholarly work delves into the intricate connections between these disciplines and their historical development. She approaches her subjects with a rigorous analytical lens, aiming to illuminate the societal forces and technological advancements that have shaped our understanding of health and scientific progress.
Argues that forms of genetic screening - prenatal, newborn, and carrier testing - are both morally right and politically acceptable. This book includes chapters on the often misunderstood testing programs for sickle cell anemia, and on one of the world's only mandated premarital screening programs, both of them on the island of Cyprus.
In this classic work of women's history (winner of the 1984 Dexter Prize from the Society for the History of Technology), Ruth Schwartz Cowan shows how and why modern women devote as much time to housework as did their colonial sisters. In lively and provocative prose, Cowan explains how the modern conveniences—washing machines, white flour, vacuums, commercial cotton—seemed at first to offer working-class women middle-class standards of comfort. Over time, however, it became clear that these gadgets and gizmos mainly replaced work previously conducted by men, children, and servants. Instead of living lives of leisure, middle-class women found themselves struggling to keep up with ever higher standards of cleanliness.
The text explains how various technologies have affected the ways in which Americans work, govern, cook, transport, communicate, maintain their health, and reproduce.