"This reappraisal of the relationship of women and the scientific enterprise focuses on the efforts of women science faculty at Mount Holyoke College to advance themselves and their institution since its founding by Mary Lyon in 1837 as an evangelical Protestant seminary for women.

Contrary to most history-of-science interpretations of women's professional experience, Levin suggests that, in several important ways, New England Protestant culture - and the zeal of women faculty at a college established to train female missionaries - created a learning environment that enabled science faculty to establish and maintain a niche for themselves and to contribute to the development of scientific enterprise, particularly during Mount Holyoke's first hundred years."--Jacket.