Dr. Breitenberger’s talk on Women in Science was intriguing. Although women have historically been ignored for the most part these women were able to make great strides in their respective fields and as a result, helped to pave a path for women of today. In the past, women were excluded from professional organizations. When women were unable to work on their own they worked with family or spouses. Some of the more recent women in science have been able to work on their own and make their own discoveries not overshadowed by men.
From the times of Margaret Cavendish to Rosalind Franklin and Marie Curie women have played an integral role in advancing science. Although all of these women were very interesting I personally found the works of Mary Anning and Rosalind Franklin most interesting. Mary Anning actually began to work in fossil extraction very young and primarily used this as a way to make a living. She was a mixture of a geologist and paleontologist. During her lifetime and beyond she has been credited with discovering many different kinds of fossils. Rosalind Franklin’s work was remarkable in that she directly led to the discovery of DNA’s structure by working in X-ray crystallography.
I enjoyed how Dr. Breitenberger took the time to highlight the individual successes of each of these women in science and to tell exactly how they contributed to their different areas as a whole. With Women in Science as the binding characteristic, she was able to explore a wide array of different fields and look at numerous women’s lives, jobs, and scientific contributions. One of the main points that resonated with me was that these women went beyond just accumulating the facts by recording observations, translating, and helping to write down things.
I also find Mary Anning and Rosalind Franklin to be interesting historical figures. When we visited Lyme Regis with earlier trips, we learned that Mary Anning’s father was a carpenter that did work for Jane Austen. I like those connection points and it makes one realize just what a small country England is. Also, I think the reading I posted and some interviews with Rosalind Franklin’s sister bring out much more of who she was. Sometimes, I think we tend to see her as a victim of the male patriarchy, which she undoubtedly was to some extent, but by seeing her that way we tend to forget her enormous success as a scientist.