Ruth Schwartz Cowan (born 1941) is an Americanhistorian of science, technology and medicine noted for her research on the history of human and medical genetics, as well as on the history of household technologies. She is also the author of a widely used textbook on the social history of American technology.
Cowan was born in Brooklyn, New York, the daughter of Betty (a home-maker and antique-dealer) and Louis E. Schwartz (an attorney and office manager). She co-wrote a book detailing their assimilation as Jewish immigrants with her husband Neil.[1]
She attended the Brooklyn public schools, graduating (in 1957) from Midwood High School. Cowan has a B.A. in zoology fromBarnard College, an M.A. in history from theUniversity of California at Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in the history of science fromJohns Hopkins University.[2] Her doctoral dissertation, "Sir Francis Galton and the Study of Heredity in the 19th Century," was supervised byWilliam Coleman.
Cowan was a professor of history atSUNY Stony Brook from 1967 to 2002. She also served as Director of Women's Studies from 1985 to 1990 and Chair of the Honors College from 1997 to 2002.[2][3] Cowan is a Professor Emerita at theUniversity of Pennsylvania.[4]
Cowan's bookMore Work for Mother found that since 1700, "technological change shifted the burden of domestic labor from adult men and children to mothers and wives."[3]
Cowan'sMore Work for Mother received the Dexter Prize from theSociety for the History of Technology in 1984.[3] In 1997 the Society for the History of Technology also awarded her theLeonardo da Vinci Medal.
Cowan received theJohn Desmond Bernal Prize in 2007 for distinguished scholarly contributions to the field ofScience and Technology Studies (STS) for her textbookA Social History of American Technology.
Cowan was elected to theAmerican Philosophical Society in 2014.[5]
