This introductory chapter maps the history and historiography of women in science, illustrating how women have been neglected due in part to the imposition of masculine models of reference and interpretation that failed to find women’s practice and contributions. Themes include discussions of influential texts in feminist history of science, and of key frameworks of analysis including collaboration, private/public and amateur/professional distinctions, feminized spaces of science, geographical differences and non-Western perspectives, and the implications for women of domestic and institutional places of practice. This chapter also serves to introduce the themes of each section of the volume: Strategies and Networks; Institutions, Archives and Inclusion; Cultures of Science; Science Communication; and Access, Diversity and Practice.