Women as Public Scientists in the Atomic Age: Rachel Carson, Charlotte Auerbach, and Genetics

This paper examines two women, both trained in genetics, who became activists in the 1950s and 1960s to educate the public about the dangers radiation and wartime chemicals posed to the human germ plasm. Both women fostered scientific literacy to empower an informed citizenry that could influence public policy. They appealed both to men and to the growing cadre of middle-class educated women, encouraging an expanded role for maternal responsibility: not only protecting families but also the well-being of all humankind.