Raised by unusually progressive parents, Margaret Mead was encouraged early in life to follow her interests. Home schooling prepared Mead for Barnard College, from which the aspiring anthropologist?as a twenty-three-year-old doctoral candidate?embarked upon her first solo expedition to Samoa in 1925. Mead's groundbreaking career, which spanned an active half century, immersed the social scientist in other cultures, spurring her to develop new techniques in fieldwork. Mead published many academic papers and books on her way to becoming one of the most respected and outspoken anthropologists of the twentieth century. Women Who Dare: Margaret Mead illustrates the story of Mead's life with dozens of historical photographs.