THE LIFE OF A FEMALE DRIFTER An Entomologist Remembers
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A lively account of the author's life from birth in rural Saskatchewan during the early years of the twentieth century, to university science studies, to extensive travel on all continents except Antarctica, to a successful and respected career in the male-dominated field of entomology -- the study of insects -- specializing in moths. Her story serves as a gentle reminder that many of those women who came of age between the two world wars created lives for themselves that would be the envy of many today.
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By Margaret Rae MacKay
ISBN#1-894263-71-5
ISBN#9781894263719
Determined. Adventurous. Dynamic. Not words you normally associate with someone who studies bugs, but then Margaret Rae MacKay was no ordinary woman, as she so delightfully recounts in her recently published memoirs, The Life of a Female Drifter-An Entomologist Remembers.
After receiving a master's degree in entomology from the University of Saskatchewan-a rare achievement for women in 1938-Margaret travelled to London, England, to take up a position as an entomological artist at the venerable British Museum. So unusual was this step that she was treated as a minor celebrity during the crossing, including receiving a request from the Montreal and Winnipeg newspapers for her photograph as she boarded the ship.
Although war loomed on the horizon, Margaret took advantage of the opportunities-both professional and social-that come with living in one of the world's great cities and experienced life to the fullest. The Blitz, however, brought this enjoyable period to an end and her return to Canada, where she began a career in forest entomology with the federal Department of Agriculture. Over the next three decades, she earned the respect of her colleagues, and overcame some of the prejudices of her times, with postings in British Columbia and Ottawa, and field study throughout North America. By the time of her retirement in the 1970s, she had achieved international renown as an artist and a scientist in the male-dominated field of entomology, specializing in moths.
The Life of a Female Drifter-An Entomologist Remembers is a spirited account of the life of Margaret Rae MacKay, a woman with an almost unquenchable thirst for life and new experiences. While these traits come through in every word she writes and every line she draws, her story also reminds us that many of those women who came of age between the two world wars created lives for themselves that would be the envy of many today. Her life, in turn, illustrates the best that the twentieth century had to offer.
