Margaret Cavendish (1623-1673)
Believed that we should exclude spiritual/supernatural beliefs from science. First woman invited to attend a royal society meeting. She didn’t get a lot of credit during her life, but now does.
Caroline Herschel (1750-1848)
Had typhus at age 10, didn’t grow tall. Eventually moved to England with her brother and helped make telescopes and observations. Mathematical approach to astronomy.
Mary Anning (1799-1847)
Fossil hunter in England. Shockingly, men got credit for a lot of her findings.
Elise Widdowson (1906-2000)
Dietician. Ate nothing but bread, cabbage, and potatoes for three months to experiment. Advocate for milk. Paradigm: you can quantify the nutritional value of different foods.
Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (1910-1994)
X-ray crystallographer, solved the structures of penicillin, vitamin B12, and insulin. Only British woman to win a Nobel prize so far.
Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958)
Made X-ray images that were shown to Watson and Crick. Died of ovarian cancer before the Nobel prize was given.
Anne McLaren (1927-2007)
Studied embryos and how different parts form. First woman to be an officer of Royal Society.
France:
Emile du Chatelet (1706-1749)
Studied math and physics. Many affairs. Translated Newton’s Principia into French and added her own commentary (Voltaire had her translation published after her death). Big on arguing for women’s right to education and inclusion in intellectual discussions.
Marie-Anne Lavoisier (1758-1836)
Wife of Anioine Lavo. and helped explain what he was doing so others could understand. She recovered all of his work and published it so that it wouldn’t be lost.
Marie Curie
Nobel prizes for the discovery of radioactivity and purification of radium. First Nobel to a woman. Advocate that your private life should not affect the appreciation of your work.
Why so few?
The traditional view of women as supporters and helpers obscures women’s contributions. Women’s social position meant that they were excluded from professional spaces and organizations and had to collaborate with male family members and friends when “field work” was required. This makes me wonder if we missed out on a lot of knowledge because great women weren’t given the right opportunities. In many of these cases, they had to rely on their brothers/husbands etc. that were already doing the scientific work. If they had opportunities of their own, how many more important female scientists would have been able to discover new things? It’s also interesting to note that there are no women of color listed. There aren’t many men of color attributed with discoveries either. It’s another case of social position affecting the opportunities for these people and acceptance of their contributions.
Yes, Claire, it is a good question as to how society was held back over the centuries with the suppression of women’s contributions. While there is a focus now on equity, those questions will never be answered.