Anomalies-Pioneering Women in Petroleum Geology: 1917-2017 is a celebration of individual courage, tenacity, and professionalism as well as a timely reminder of our past, when male-dominated professions excluded women. The social structure outside this profession amplified the struggle for equality: the inability to vote, the dictate that women should not work outside the home when married, the pervasive practice of lower pay for equal work, the paucity of advancement opportunities, and the lack of recognition in companies and associations.

Surprisingly, it spans a stretch of time virtually equal to the time span that men were finally being valued as petroleum geologists. The timeframe began with the period prior to WWI when even a male geologist was looked upon with disdain as having no useful purpose in the search for oil. As geologists gained acceptance, war intervened, creating a vacuum into which the female geology graduate stepped up to the challenge. The women described in Anomalies took the steppingstones necessary to gain respect and become leaders in their chosen field. They are celebrated herein.