Women In Science
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The presence of women in science spans the earliest times of the
history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
wherein they have made significant contributions. Historians with an interest in
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most culture ...
and science have researched the scientific endeavors and accomplishments of women, the barriers they have faced, and the strategies implemented to have their work
peer-reviewed Peer review is the evaluation of work by one or more people with similar competencies as the producers of the work ( peers). It functions as a form of self-regulation by qualified members of a profession within the relevant field. Peer revie ...
and accepted in major scientific journals and other publications. The historical, critical, and
sociological Sociology is a social science that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. It uses various methods of empirical investigation and ...
study of these issues has become an
academic discipline An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
in its own right. The involvement of women in medicine occurred in several early western civilizations, and the study of
natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancien ...
in
ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
was open to women. Women contributed to the proto-science of
alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim wo ...
in the first or second centuries C.E. During the Middle Ages, religious
convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Angl ...
s were an important place of education for women, and some of these communities provided opportunities for women to contribute to scholarly research. The 11th century saw the emergence of the first universities; women were, for the most part, excluded from university education.Whaley, Leigh Ann. ''Women's History as Scientists''. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO, INC. 2003. Outside academia,
botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
was the science that benefitted most from contributions of women in early modern times. The attitude toward educating women in medical fields appears to have been more liberal in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
than in other places. The first known woman to earn a university chair in a scientific field of studies was eighteenth-century Italian scientist Laura Bassi. Gender roles were largely
deterministic Determinism is a philosophical view, where all events are determined completely by previously existing causes. Deterministic theories throughout the history of philosophy have developed from diverse and sometimes overlapping motives and cons ...
in the eighteenth century and women made substantial advances in science. During the nineteenth century, women were excluded from most formal scientific education, but they began to be admitted into learned societies during this period. In the later nineteenth century, the rise of the women's college provided jobs for women scientists and opportunities for education. Born in
Warsaw, Poland Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...
,
Marie Curie Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie ( , , ; born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, ; 7 November 1867 – 4 July 1934) was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the fir ...
, paved the way for scientists to study
radioactive decay Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is consid ...
and discovered the elements
radium Radium is a chemical element with the symbol Ra and atomic number 88. It is the sixth element in group 2 of the periodic table, also known as the alkaline earth metals. Pure radium is silvery-white, but it readily reacts with nitrogen (rat ...
and
polonium Polonium is a chemical element with the symbol Po and atomic number 84. Polonium is a chalcogen. A rare and highly radioactive metal with no stable isotopes, polonium is chemically similar to selenium and tellurium, though its metallic character ...
.Rutherford. “Marie Curie.” ''The Slavonic and East European Review'', vol. 13, no. 39, 1935, pp. 673–676. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/4203041. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. Working as a
physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
and
chemist A chemist (from Greek ''chēm(ía)'' alchemy; replacing ''chymist'' from Medieval Latin ''alchemist'') is a scientist trained in the study of chemistry. Chemists study the composition of matter and its properties. Chemists carefully describe th ...
, she conducted pioneering research on radioactive decay and was the first woman to receive a
Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
and became the first person to receive a second
Nobel Prize in Chemistry ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
. Forty women have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2010. Seventeen women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine.


Cross-cultural perspectives

In the 1970s and 1980s, many books and articles about women scientists were appearing; virtually all of the published sources ignored
women of color The term "person of color" ( : people of color or persons of color; abbreviated POC) is primarily used to describe any person who is not considered " white". In its current meaning, the term originated in, and is primarily associated with, the ...
and women outside of
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and
North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and th ...
. The formation of the Kovalevskaia Fund in 1985 and the
Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World The Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World (OWSD) is an international organisation that provides research training, career development and networking opportunities for women scientists throughout the developing world at differ ...
in 1993 gave more visibility to previously marginalized women scientists, but even today there is a dearth of information about current and historical women in science in developing countries. According to academic
Ann Hibner Koblitz Ann Hibner Koblitz (born 1952) is a Professor Emerita of Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University known for her studies of the history of women in science. She is the Director of the Kovalevskaia Fund, which supports women in science ...
: Koblitz has said that these generalizations about women in science often do not hold up cross-culturally:


Historical examples


Ancient history

The involvement of women in the field of medicine has been recorded in several early civilizations. An ancient Egyptian physician, Peseshet (), described in an inscription as "lady overseer of the female physicians", is the earliest known female physician named in the
history of science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Science's earliest roots can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Meso ...
.
Agamede Agamede (Ancient Greek: Ἀγαμήδη means ‘very cunning’) was a name attributed to two separate women in classical Greek mythology and legendary history. * Agamede ( twelfth century BC) was, according to Homer, a Greek physician acquainte ...
was cited by
Homer Homer (; grc, Ὅμηρος , ''Hómēros'') (born ) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the ''Iliad'' and the ''Odyssey'', two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the ...
as a healer in
ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
before the
Trojan War In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans ( Greeks) after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and ...
(c. 1194–1184 BCE). According to one late antique legend, Agnodice was the first female physician to practice legally in fourth century BCE
Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...
. The study of
natural philosophy Natural philosophy or philosophy of nature (from Latin ''philosophia naturalis'') is the philosophical study of physics, that is, nature and the physical universe. It was dominant before the development of modern science. From the ancien ...
in
ancient Greece Ancient Greece ( el, Ἑλλάς, Hellás) was a northeastern Mediterranean civilization, existing from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th–9th centuries BC to the end of classical antiquity ( AD 600), that comprised a loose collection of cu ...
was open to women. Recorded examples include Aglaonike, who predicted
eclipse An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three c ...
s; and
Theano In Greek mythology, Theano (; Ancient Greek: Θεανώ) may refer to the following personages: *Theano, wife of Metapontus, king of Icaria. Metapontus demanded that she bear him children, or leave the kingdom. She presented the children of Mel ...
,
mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...
and physician, who was a pupil (possibly also wife) of
Pythagoras Pythagoras of Samos ( grc, Πυθαγόρας ὁ Σάμιος, Pythagóras ho Sámios, Pythagoras the Samian, or simply ; in Ionian Greek; ) was an ancient Ionian Greek philosopher and the eponymous founder of Pythagoreanism. His poli ...
, and one of a school in
Crotone Crotone (, ; nap, label= Crotonese, Cutrone or ) is a city and ''comune'' in Calabria, Italy. Founded as the Achaean colony of Kroton ( grc, Κρότων or ; la, Crotona) in Magna Graecia, it was known as Cotrone from the Middle Ages unti ...
founded by Pythagoras, which included many other women. A passage in Pollux speaks about those who invented the process of coining money mentioning
Pheidon Pheidon (Greek: Φείδων) was an Argive ruler during the 7th century BCE and 10th in line to Temenus. He was arguably Argos's most ambitious and successful ruler during the 7th century BCE. There is a possibility that there were in fact two di ...
and Demodike from Cyme, wife of the Phrygian king, Midas, and daughter of King Agamemnon of Cyme. A daughter of a certain
Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the ...
, king of Aeolian Cyme, married a Phrygian king called Midas.Jenny Strauss Clay, Irad Malkin, Yannis Z. Tzifopoulos eds., ''Panhellenes at Methone: Graphê in Late Geometric and Protoarchaic Methone'', Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2017, p. 154 This link may have facilitated the Greeks "borrowing" their alphabet from the
Phrygians The Phrygians ( Greek: Φρύγες, ''Phruges'' or ''Phryges'') were an ancient Indo-European speaking people, who inhabited central-western Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) in antiquity. They were related to the Greeks. Ancient Greek authors use ...
because the Phrygian letter shapes are closest to the inscriptions from Aeolis. During the period of the
Babylonia Babylonia (; Akkadian: , ''māt Akkadī'') was an ancient Akkadian-speaking state and cultural area based in the city of Babylon in central-southern Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq and parts of Syria). It emerged as an Amorite-ruled state c ...
n civilization, around 1200 BCE, two perfumeresses named Tapputi-Belatekallim and -ninu (first half of her name unknown) were able to obtain the essences from plants by using extraction and distillation procedures. During the Egyptian dynasty, women were involved in applied chemistry, such as the making of beer and the preparation of medicinal compounds. Women have been recorded to have made major contributions to
alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim wo ...
. Many of which lived in
Alexandria Alexandria ( or ; ar, ٱلْإِسْكَنْدَرِيَّةُ ; grc-gre, Αλεξάνδρεια, Alexándria) is the second largest city in Egypt, and the largest city on the Mediterranean coast. Founded in by Alexander the Great, Alexandri ...
around the 1st or 2nd centuries C.E., where the
gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized p ...
tradition led to female contributions being valued. The most famous of the women alchemist, Mary the Jewess, is credited with inventing several chemical instruments, including the double boiler (''bain-marie''); the improvement or creation of distillation equipment of that time. Such distillation equipment were called ''kerotakis'' (simple still) and the ''tribikos'' (a complex distillation device).
Hypatia of Alexandria Hypatia, Koine pronunciation (born 350–370; died 415 AD) was a neoplatonist philosopher, astronomer, and mathematician, who lived in Alexandria, Egypt, then part of the Eastern Roman Empire. She was a prominent thinker in Alexandria wher ...
(c. 350–415 CE), daughter of
Theon of Alexandria Theon of Alexandria (; grc, Θέων ὁ Ἀλεξανδρεύς;  335 – c. 405) was a Greek scholar and mathematician who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. He edited and arranged Euclid's '' Elements'' and wrote commentaries on w ...
, was a philosopher, mathematician, and astronomer. She is the earliest female mathematician about whom detailed information has survived. Hypatia is credited with writing several important commentaries on
geometry Geometry (; ) is, with arithmetic, one of the oldest branches of mathematics. It is concerned with properties of space such as the distance, shape, size, and relative position of figures. A mathematician who works in the field of geometry is c ...
,
algebra Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics. Elementary ...
and
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
. Hypatia was the head of a philosophical school and taught many students. In 415 CE, she became entangled in a political dispute between
Cyril Cyril (also Cyrillus or Cyryl) is a masculine given name. It is derived from the Greek name Κύριλλος (''Kýrillos''), meaning 'lordly, masterful', which in turn derives from Greek κυριος (''kýrios'') 'lord'. There are various varian ...
, the bishop of Alexandria, and Orestes, the Roman governor, which resulted in a mob of Cyril's supporters stripping her, dismembering her, and burning the pieces of her body.


Medieval Europe

The early parts of the European
Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...
, also known as the Dark Ages, were marked by the
decline of the Roman Empire The fall of the Western Roman Empire (also called the fall of the Roman Empire or the fall of Rome) was the loss of central political control in the Western Roman Empire, a process in which the Empire failed to enforce its rule, and its vas ...
. The Latin West was left with great difficulties that affected the continent's intellectual production dramatically. Although nature was still seen as a system that could be comprehended in the light of reason, there was little innovative scientific inquiry.The End of the Classical World, (Lecture 12), in Lawrence M. Principe (2002) History of Science: Antiquity to 1700. Teaching Company, Course No. 1200 The Arabic world deserves credit for preserving scientific advancements. Arabic scholars produced original scholarly work and generated copies of manuscripts from Classical periods. During this period, Christianity underwent a period of resurgence, and Western civilization was bolstered as a result. This phenomenon was, in part, due to monasteries and nunneries that nurtured the skills of reading and writing, and the monks and nuns who collected and copied important writings produced by scholars of the past. As it mentioned before,
convent A convent is a community of monks, nuns, religious brothers or, sisters or priests. Alternatively, ''convent'' means the building used by the community. The word is particularly used in the Catholic Church, Lutheran churches, and the Angl ...
s were an important place of education for women during this period, for the monasteries and nunneries encourage the skills of reading and writing, and some of these communities provided opportunities for women to contribute to scholarly research. An example is the German
abbess An abbess (Latin: ''abbatissa''), also known as a mother superior, is the female superior of a community of Catholic nuns in an abbey. Description In the Catholic Church (both the Latin Church and Eastern Catholic), Eastern Orthodox, Copt ...
Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179 A.D), a famous philosopher and botanist, whose prolific writings include treatments of various scientific subjects, including medicine,
botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
and natural history (c. 1151–58). Another famous German abbess was Hroswitha of Gandersheim (935–1000 A.D.) that also helped encourage women to be intellectual. However, with the growth in number and power of nunneries, the all-male clerical hierarchy was not welcomed toward it, and thus it stirred up conflict by having backlash against women's advancement. That impacted many religious orders closed on women and disbanded their nunneries, and overall excluding women from the ability to learn to read and write. With that, the world of science became closed off to women, limiting women's influence in science. Entering the 11th century, the first universities emerged. Women were, for the most part, excluded from university education. However, there were some exceptions. The Italian
University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...
allowed women to attend lectures from its inception, in 1088. The attitude to educating women in medical fields in Italy appears to have been more liberal than in other places. The physician, Trotula di Ruggiero, is supposed to have held a chair at the Medical School of Salerno in the 11th century, where she taught many noble Italian women, a group sometimes referred to as the " ladies of Salerno". Several influential texts on women's medicine, dealing with
obstetrics Obstetrics is the field of study concentrated on pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. As a medical specialty, obstetrics is combined with gynecology under the discipline known as obstetrics and gynecology (OB/GYN), which is a sur ...
and
gynecology Gynaecology or gynecology (see American and British English spelling differences, spelling differences) is the area of medicine that involves the treatment of women's diseases, especially those of the reproductive organs. It is often paired with ...
, among other topics, are also often attributed to Trotula. Dorotea Bucca was another distinguished Italian physician. She held a chair of philosophy and medicine at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...
for over forty years from 1390.Howard S
The Hidden Giants
p. 35, (Lulu.com; 2006) (Retrieved 22 August 2007)
Brooklyn Museum: Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Heritage Floor: Dorotea Bucca
(Retrieved 22 August 2007)
Jex-Blake S (1873
The medical education of women
republished in ''The Education Papers: Women's Quest for Equality, 1850–1912'' (Spender D, ed) p. 270] (Retrieved 22 August 2007)
Other Italian women whose contributions in medicine have been recorded include Abella, Jacobina Félicie,
Alessandra Giliani Alessandra Giliani (1307-1326) was thought to be an Italian natural historian, best known as the first woman to be recorded in historical documents as practicing anatomy and pathology. However, the historical evidence for her existence is limited ...
, Rebecca de Guarna,
Margarita A margarita is a cocktail consisting of Tequila, triple sec, and lime juice often served with salt on the rim of the glass. The drink is served shaken with ice (on the rocks), blended with ice (frozen margarita), or without ice (straight u ...
,
Mercuriade Mercuriade (14th-century) was an Italian physician, surgeon and medical author. She is one of the few woman physicians known from the Middle Ages. Mercuriade was a student of the University of Salerno and belonged to the minority of female studen ...
(14th century),
Constance Calenda Constance Calenda ( it, Costanza or ; ) was an Italian surgeon specializing in diseases of the eye.
,
Calrice di Durisio Clarice di Durisio da Foggia (fl. 15th century), was an Italian eye physician and surgeon from Foggia Foggia (, , ; nap, label= Foggiano, Fògge ) is a city and former ''comune'' of Apulia, in Southern Italy, capital of the province of Foggia ...
(15th century), Constanza,
Maria Incarnata Maria may refer to: People * Mary, mother of Jesus * Maria (given name), a popular given name in many languages Place names Extraterrestrial *170 Maria, a Main belt S-type asteroid discovered in 1877 *Lunar maria (plural of ''mare''), large, da ...
and
Thomasia de Mattio ''Thomasia'' is a genus of thirty-one species of flowering plants in the family Malvaceae. Plants in this genus are small shrubs that are endemic to the south-west of Western Australia, apart from '' T. petalocalyx'' that is native to Victoria ...
. Despite the success of some women, cultural biases affecting their education and participation in science were prominent in the Middle Ages. For example, Saint
Thomas Aquinas Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known wi ...
, a Christian scholar, wrote, referring to women, "She is mentally incapable of holding a position of authority."


Scientific Revolutions of 1600s and 1700s

Margaret Cavendish Margaret Lucas Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle-upon-Tyne (1623 – 15 December 1673) was an English philosopher, poet, scientist, fiction writer and playwright. Her husband, William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, was Royalist co ...
, a seventeenth-century aristocrat, took part in some of the most important scientific debates of that time. She was, however, not inducted into the English
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, although she was once allowed to attend a meeting. She wrote a number of works on scientific matters, including ''Observations upon Experimental Philosophy'' (1666) and ''Grounds of Natural Philosophy''. In these works she was especially critical of the growing belief that humans, through science, were the masters of nature. The 1666 work attempted to heighten female interest in science. The observations provided a critique of the experimental science of Bacon and criticized microscopes as imperfect machines. Isabella Cortese, an Italian alchemist, is most known for her book ''I secreti della signora Isabella Cortese'' or ''The Secrets of Isabella Cortese.'' Cortese was able to manipulate nature in order to create several medicinal, alchemy and cosmetic "secrets" or experiments. Isabella's book of secrets belongs to a larger book of secrets that became extremely popular among the elite during the 16th century. Despite the low percentage of literate women during Cortese's era, the majority of alchemical and cosmetic "secrets" in the book of secrets were geared towards women. This included but was not limited to pregnancy, fertility, and childbirth. Sophia Brahe, sister of Tycho Brahe, was a Danish Horticulturalist. Brahe was trained by her older brother in chemistry and horticulture but taught herself astronomy by studying books in German. Sophia visited her brother in the Uranienborg on numerous occasions and assisted on his project the ''De nova stella.'' Her observations lead to the discovery of the Supernova SN 1572 which helped refute the geocentric model of the universe. Tycho Wrote the Urania Titani about his sister Sophia and her husband Erik. The Urania presented Sophia and the Titan represented Erik. Tycho used this poem in order to show his appreciation for his sister and all of her work. In Germany, the tradition of female participation in craft production enabled some women to become involved in observational science, especially
astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...
. Between 1650 and 1710, women were 14% of German astronomers. The most famous female astronomer in Germany was Maria Winkelmann. She was educated by her father and uncle and received training in astronomy from a nearby self-taught astronomer. Her chance to be a practising astronomer came when she married
Gottfried Kirch Gottfried Kirch (; also KircheKenneth Glyn Jones, ''The Search for the Nebulae'', Alpha Academic, 1975, p. 19. , Kirkius; 18 December 1639 – 25 July 1710) was a German astronomer and the first "Astronomer Royal" in Berlin and, as such, directo ...
, Prussia's foremost astronomer. She became his assistant at the
astronomical observatory An observatory is a location used for observing terrestrial, marine, or celestial events. Astronomy, climatology/meteorology, geophysical, oceanography and volcanology are examples of disciplines for which observatories have been constructed. His ...
operated in Berlin by the
Academy of Science An academy of sciences is a type of learned society or academy (as special scientific institution) dedicated to sciences that may or may not be state funded. Some state funded academies are tuned into national or royal (in case of the Unit ...
. She made original contributions, including the discovery of a comet. When her husband died, Winkelmann applied for a position as assistant astronomer at the Berlin Academy – for which she had experience. As a woman – with no university degree – she was denied the post. Members of the Berlin Academy feared that they would establish a bad example by hiring a woman. "Mouths would gape", they said. Winkelmann's problems with the Berlin Academy reflect the obstacles women faced in being accepted in scientific work, which was considered to be chiefly for men. No woman was invited to either the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
of London nor the
French Academy of Sciences The French Academy of Sciences (French: ''Académie des sciences'') is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV of France, Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French Scientific me ...
until the twentieth century. Most people in the seventeenth century viewed a life devoted to any kind of scholarship as being at odds with the domestic duties women were expected to perform. A founder of modern botany and
zoology Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...
, the German
Maria Sibylla Merian Maria Sibylla Merian (2 April 164713 January 1717) was a German naturalist and scientific illustrator. She was one of the earliest European naturalists to observe insects directly. Merian was a descendant of the Frankfurt branch of the Swiss Mer ...
(1647–1717), spent her life investigating nature. When she was thirteen, Sibylla began growing caterpillars and studying their
metamorphosis Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops including birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation. Some inse ...
into butterflies. She kept a "Study Book" which recorded her investigations into natural philosophy. In her first publication, ''The New Book of Flowers'', she used imagery to catalog the lives of plants and insects. After her husband died, and her brief stint of living in
Siewert Siewert is the surname of: * Alfons Siewert (1872-1922), Ukrainian physician * Brian Siewert, television composer * Clara Siewert (1862–1945), German Symbolist painter, graphic artist and sculptor * Eva Siewert (1907–1994), German writer * J ...
, she and her daughter journeyed to
Paramaribo Paramaribo (; ; nicknamed Par'bo) is the capital and largest city of Suriname, located on the banks of the Suriname River in the Paramaribo District. Paramaribo has a population of roughly 241,000 people (2012 census), almost half of Suriname's ...
for two years to observe insects, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. She returned to
Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...
and published ''The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname'', which "revealed to Europeans for the first time the astonishing diversity of the rain forest." She was a
botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
and
entomologist Entomology () is the scientific study of insects, a branch of zoology. In the past the term "insect" was less specific, and historically the definition of entomology would also include the study of animals in other arthropod groups, such as arach ...
who was known for her artistic illustrations of plants and insects. Uncommon for that era, she traveled to South America and Surinam, where, assisted by her daughters, she illustrated the plant and animal life of those regions. Overall, the
Scientific Revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...
did little to change people's ideas about the nature of women – more specifically – their capacity to contribute to science just as men do. According to
Jackson Spielvogel Jackson Joseph Spielvogel is professor, Associate Professor Emeritus of History at Pennsylvania State University. His textbooks on world history, Western world, Western civilization and Nazi Germany are widely adopted in middle school, Secondary sch ...
, 'Male scientists used the new science to spread the view that women were by nature inferior and subordinate to men and suited to play a domestic role as nurturing mothers. The widespread distribution of books ensured the continuation of these ideas'."book" in Spielvogel, Jackson (2014) Western Civilisation. Toward a New Heaven and a New Earth: The Scientific Revolution. Cengage Learning. Chapter 16, p492.


Eighteenth century

Although women excelled in many scientific areas during the eighteenth century, they were discouraged from learning about plant reproduction.
Carl Linnaeus Carl Linnaeus (; 23 May 1707 – 10 January 1778), also known after his ennoblement in 1761 as Carl von Linné Blunt (2004), p. 171. (), was a Swedish botanist, zoologist, taxonomist, and physician who formalised binomial nomenclature, the ...
' system of plant classification based on sexual characteristics drew attention to botanical licentiousness, and people feared that women would learn immoral lessons from nature's example. Women were often depicted as both innately emotional and incapable of objective reasoning, or as natural mothers reproducing a natural, moral society. The eighteenth century was characterized by three divergent views towards woman: that women were mentally and socially inferior to men, that they were equal but different, and that women were potentially equal in both mental ability and contribution to society. While individuals such as
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
believed women's roles were confined to motherhood and service to their male partners, the Enlightenment was a period in which women experienced expanded roles in the sciences. The rise of salon culture in Europe brought philosophers and their conversation to an intimate setting where men and women met to discuss contemporary political, social, and scientific topics. While
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (, ; 28 June 1712 – 2 July 1778) was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer. His political philosophy influenced the progress of the Age of Enlightenment throughout Europe, as well as aspects of the French Revolu ...
attacked women-dominated salons as producing 'effeminate men' that stifled serious discourse, salons were characterized in this era by the mixing of the sexes.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English aristocrat, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Mary married Edward Wortley Montagu, who later served a ...
defied convention by introducing
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...
inoculation through
variolation Variolation was the method of inoculation first used to immunize individuals against smallpox (''Variola'') with material taken from a patient or a recently variolated individual, in the hope that a mild, but protective, infection would result. Var ...
to Western medicine after witnessing it during her travels in the
Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
.Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Selected Letters. Ed. Isobel Grundy. Penguin Books, 1997. Print. In 1718 Wortley Montague had her son inoculated and when in 1721 a smallpox epidemic struck England, she had her daughter inoculated.Grundy, Isobel.''Montagu, Lady Mary Wortley'' Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. This was the first such operation done in Britain. She persuaded
Caroline of Ansbach , father = John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach , mother = Princess Eleonore Erdmuthe of Saxe-Eisenach , birth_date = , birth_place = Ansbach, Principality of Ansbach, Holy Roman Empire , death_date = , death_place = St James's Pala ...
to test the treatment on prisoners. Princess Caroline subsequently inoculated her two daughters in 1722. Under a pseudonym, Wortley Montague published an article describing and advocating in favor of inoculation in September 1722. After publicly defending forty nine theses in the Palazzo Pubblico, Laura Bassi was awarded a doctorate of Philosophy in 1732 at the
University of Bologna The University of Bologna ( it, Alma Mater Studiorum – Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is a public research university in Bologna, Italy. Founded in 1088 by an organised guild of students (''studiorum''), it is the oldest university in contin ...
. Thus, Bassi became the second woman in the world to earn a philosophy doctorate after
Elena Cornaro Piscopia Elena Lucrezia Cornaro Piscopia (, ; 5 June 1646 – 26 July 1684) or Elena Lucrezia Corner (), also known in English as Helen Cornaro, was a Venetian philosopher of noble descent who in 1678 became one of the first women to receive an academic ...
in 1678, 54 years prior. She subsequently defended twelve additional theses at the
Archiginnasio The Archiginnasio of Bologna is one of the most important buildings in the city of Bologna; once the main building of the University of Bologna, it currently houses the Archiginnasio Municipal Library and the Anatomical Theatre. In the heart of ...
, the main building of the University of Bologna which allowed her to petition for a teaching position at the university. In 1732 the university granted Bassi's professorship in philosophy, making her a member of the Academy of the Sciences and the first woman to earn a professorship in physics at a university in Europe But the university held the value that women were to lead a private life and from 1746 to 1777 she gave only one formal dissertation per year ranging in topic from the problem of
gravity In physics, gravity () is a fundamental interaction which causes mutual attraction between all things with mass or energy. Gravity is, by far, the weakest of the four fundamental interactions, approximately 1038 times weaker than the stro ...
to
electricity Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as described ...
. Because she could not lecture publicly at the university regularly, she began conducting private lessons and experiments from home in the year of 1749. However, due to her increase in responsibilities and public appearances on behalf of the university, Bassi was able to petition for regular pay increases, which in turn was used to pay for her advanced equipment. Bassi earned the highest salary paid by the University of Bologna of 1,200 lire. In 1776, at the age of 65, she was appointed to the chair in experimental physics by the Bologna Institute of Sciences with her husband as a teaching assistant. According to Britannica,
Maria Gaetana Agnesi Maria Gaetana Agnesi ( , , ; 16 May 1718 – 9 January 1799) was an Italian mathematician, philosopher, theologian, and humanitarian. She was the first woman to write a mathematics handbook and the first woman appointed as a mathematics profe ...
is "considered to be the first woman in the Western world to have achieved a reputation in mathematics." She is credited as the first woman to write a mathematics handbook, the ''Instituzioni analitiche ad uso della gioventù italiana'', (Analytical Institutions for the Use of Italian Youth). Published in 1748 it "was regarded as the best introduction extant to the works of
Euler Leonhard Euler ( , ; 15 April 170718 September 1783) was a Swiss mathematician, physicist, astronomer, geographer, logician and engineer who founded the studies of graph theory and topology and made pioneering and influential discoveries in ma ...
."WOMEN'S HISTORY CATEGORIES
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The goal of this work was, according to Agnesi herself, to give a systematic illustration of the different results and theorems of
infinitesimal calculus Calculus, originally called infinitesimal calculus or "the calculus of infinitesimals", is the mathematical study of continuous change, in the same way that geometry is the study of shape, and algebra is the study of generalizations of arithm ...
. In 1750 she became the second woman to be granted a professorship at a European university. Also appointed to the University of Bologna she never taught there. The German
Dorothea Erxleben Dorothea Christiane Erxleben (13 November 1715 – 13 June 1762) was a German doctor who became the first female doctor of medicinal science in Germany. Early life Dorothea was born on 13 November 1715 in the small town of Quedlinburg, German ...
was instructed in medicine by her father from an early ageSutherland, M. (1985): ''Women Who Teach in Universities'' (Trentham Books) pg. 118 and Bassi's university professorship inspired Erxleben to fight for her right to practise
medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
. In 1742 she published a
tract Tract may refer to: Geography and real estate * Housing tract, an area of land that is subdivided into smaller individual lots * Land lot or tract, a section of land * Census tract, a geographic region defined for the purpose of taking a census ...
arguing that women should be allowed to attend university.Offen, K. (2000): ''European Feminisms, 1700–1950: A Political History'' (Stanford University Press), pg. 43 After being admitted to study by a dispensation of
Frederick the Great Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the Sil ...
, Erxleben received her
M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...
from the
University of Halle Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...
in 1754. She went on to analyse the obstacles preventing women from studying, among them housekeeping and children. She became the first female medical doctor in
Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
. In 1741–42
Charlotta Frölich Charlotta Frölich (28 November 1698 – 21 July 1770) was a Swedish writer, historian, agronomist and poet. She sometimes used the pseudonym Lotta Triven. She published poems, stories, and work about political and scientific subjects. She was t ...
became the first woman to be published by the
Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...
with three books in agricultural science. In 1748
Eva Ekeblad Eva Ekeblad (née De la Gardie; 10 July 1724 – 15 May 1786) was a Swedish countess, salon hostess, agronomist, and scientist. She was widely known for discovering a method in 1746 to make alcohol and flour from potatoes, allowing greater us ...
became the first woman inducted into that academy. In 1746 Ekeblad had written to the academy about her discoveries of how to make flour and alcohol out of
potatoes The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern United ...
. Potatoes had been introduced into Sweden in 1658 but had been cultivated only in the greenhouses of the aristocracy. Ekeblad's work turned potatoes into a staple food in Sweden, and increased the supply of
wheat Wheat is a grass widely cultivated for its seed, a cereal grain that is a worldwide staple food. The many species of wheat together make up the genus ''Triticum'' ; the most widely grown is common wheat (''T. aestivum''). The archaeologi ...
, rye and
barley Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley pr ...
available for making bread, since potatoes could be used instead to make alcohol. This greatly improved the country's eating habits and reduced the frequency of famines. Ekeblad also discovered a method of bleaching cotton textile and yarn with soap in 1751,Riksarkivet
Band 12 (1949), p.637
and of replacing the dangerous ingredients in cosmetics of the time by using
potato flour Flour is a powder made by grinding raw grains, roots, beans, nuts, or seeds. Flours are used to make many different foods. Cereal flour, particularly wheat flour, is the main ingredient of bread, which is a staple food for many cult ...
in 1752.
Émilie du Châtelet Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, Marquise du Châtelet (; 17 December 1706 – 10 September 1749) was a French natural philosopher and mathematician from the early 1730s until her death due to complications during childbirth in 1749. ...
, a close friend of
Voltaire François-Marie Arouet (; 21 November 169430 May 1778) was a French Age of Enlightenment, Enlightenment writer, historian, and philosopher. Known by his ''Pen name, nom de plume'' M. de Voltaire (; also ; ), he was famous for his wit, and his ...
, was the first scientist to appreciate the significance of
kinetic energy In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the energy that it possesses due to its motion. It is defined as the work needed to accelerate a body of a given mass from rest to its stated velocity. Having gained this energy during its accele ...
, as opposed to
momentum In Newtonian mechanics, momentum (more specifically linear momentum or translational momentum) is the product of the mass and velocity of an object. It is a vector quantity, possessing a magnitude and a direction. If is an object's mass an ...
. She repeated and described the importance of an experiment originally devised by
Willem 's Gravesande Willem Jacob 's Gravesande (26 September 1688 – 28 February 1742) was a Dutch mathematician and natural philosopher, chiefly remembered for developing experimental demonstrations of the laws of classical mechanics and the first experimental m ...
showing the impact of falling objects is proportional not to their velocity, but to the velocity squared. This understanding is considered to have made a profound contribution to
Newtonian mechanics Newton's laws of motion are three basic laws of classical mechanics that describe the relationship between the motion of an object and the forces acting on it. These laws can be paraphrased as follows: # A body remains at rest, or in motion ...
. In 1749 she completed the French translation of Newton's ''
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...
'' (the ''Principia''), including her derivation of the notion of
conservation of energy In physics and chemistry, the law of conservation of energy states that the total energy of an isolated system remains constant; it is said to be ''conserved'' over time. This law, first proposed and tested by Émilie du Châtelet, means th ...
from its principles of mechanics. Published ten years after her death, her translation and commentary of the ''Principia'' contributed to the completion of the
scientific revolution The Scientific Revolution was a series of events that marked the emergence of modern science during the early modern period, when developments in mathematics, physics, astronomy, biology (including human anatomy) and chemistry transfo ...
in France and to its acceptance in Europe.
Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Marie-Anne Pierrette Paulze Lavoisier (20 January 1758 in Montbrison, Loire, France – 10 February 1836) was a French chemist and noblewoman. Madame Lavoisier was the wife of the chemist and nobleman Antoine Lavoisier, and acted as his laborator ...
and her husband
Antoine Lavoisier Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier ( , ; ; 26 August 17438 May 1794), When reduced without charcoal, it gave off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. He concluded that this was just a pure form of common air and th ...
rebuilt the field of
chemistry Chemistry is the science, scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a natural science that covers the Chemical element, elements that make up matter to the chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules and ions ...
, which had its roots in
alchemy Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in China, India, the Muslim wo ...
and at the time was a convoluted science dominated by
George Stahl Georg Ernst Stahl (22 October 1659 – 24 May 1734) was a German chemist, physician and philosopher. He was a supporter of vitalism, and until the late 18th century his works on phlogiston were accepted as an explanation for chemical processes.K ...
's theory of
phlogiston The phlogiston theory is a superseded scientific theory that postulated the existence of a fire-like element called phlogiston () contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion. The name comes from the Ancient Greek (''burni ...
. Paulze accompanied Lavoisier in his lab, making entries into lab notebooks and sketching diagrams of his experimental designs. The training she had received allowed her to accurately and precisely draw experimental apparatuses, which ultimately helped many of Lavoisier's contemporaries to understand his methods and results. Paulze translated various works about phlogiston into French. One of her most important translation was that of
Richard Kirwan Richard Kirwan, LL.D, FRS, FRSE MRIA (1 August 1733 – 22 June 1812) was an Irish geologist and chemist. He was one of the last supporters of the theory of phlogiston. Kirwan was active in the fields of chemistry, meteorology, and geol ...
's ''Essay on Phlogiston and the Constitution of Acids'', which she both translated and critiqued, adding footnotes as she went along and pointing out errors in the chemistry made throughout the paper. Paulze was instrumental in the 1789 publication of Lavoisier's ''Elementary Treatise on Chemistry'', which presented a unified view of chemistry as a field. This work proved pivotal in the progression of chemistry, as it presented the idea of conservation of mass as well as a list of elements and a new system for
chemical nomenclature A chemical nomenclature is a set of rules to generate systematic names for chemical compounds. The nomenclature used most frequently worldwide is the one created and developed by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC). The ...
. She also kept strict records of the procedures followed, lending validity to the findings Lavoisier published. The astronomer
Caroline Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel (; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigolle ...
was born in
Hanover Hanover (; german: Hannover ; nds, Hannober) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Lower Saxony. Its 535,932 (2021) inhabitants make it the 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest city in Northern Germany ...
but moved to England where she acted as an assistant to her brother,
William Herschel Frederick William Herschel (; german: Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel; 15 November 1738 – 25 August 1822) was a German-born British astronomer and composer. He frequently collaborated with his younger sister and fellow astronomer Caroline H ...
. Throughout her writings, she repeatedly made it clear that she desired to earn an independent wage and be able to support herself. When the crown began paying her for her assistance to her brother in 1787, she became the first woman to do so at a time when even men rarely received wages for scientific enterprises—to receive a salary for services to science.Brock, Claire. "Public Experiments." History Workshop Journal, 2004: 306–312. During 1786–97 she discovered eight
comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ar ...
s, the first on 1 August 1786. She had unquestioned priority as discoverer of five of the comets and rediscovered
Comet Encke Comet Encke , or Encke's Comet (official designation: 2P/Encke), is a periodic comet that completes an orbit of the Sun once every 3.3 years. (This is the shortest period of a reasonably bright comet; the faint main-belt comet 311P/PanSTARRS ha ...
in 1795. Five of her comets were published in ''Philosophical Transactions'', a packet of paper bearing the superscription, "This is what I call the Bills and Receipts of my Comets" contains some data connected with the discovery of each of these objects. William was summoned to
Windsor Castle Windsor Castle is a royal residence at Windsor in the English county of Berkshire. It is strongly associated with the English and succeeding British royal family, and embodies almost a millennium of architectural history. The original cast ...
to demonstrate Caroline's comet to the
royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...
. Caroline Herschel is often credited as the first woman to discover a comet; however, Maria Kirch discovered a comet in the early 1700s, but is often overlooked because at the time, the discovery was attributed to her husband,
Gottfried Kirch Gottfried Kirch (; also KircheKenneth Glyn Jones, ''The Search for the Nebulae'', Alpha Academic, 1975, p. 19. , Kirkius; 18 December 1639 – 25 July 1710) was a German astronomer and the first "Astronomer Royal" in Berlin and, as such, directo ...
.


Nineteenth century


Early nineteenth century

Science remained a largely amateur profession during the early part of the nineteenth century. Botany was considered a popular and fashionable activity, and one particularly suitable to women. In the later eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was one of the most accessible areas of science for women in both England and North America. However, as the nineteenth century progressed, botany and other sciences became increasingly professionalized, and women were increasingly excluded. Women's contributions were limited by their exclusion from most formal scientific education, but began to be recognized through their occasional admittance into learned societies during this period. Scottish scientist Mary Fairfax Somerville carried out experiments in
magnetism Magnetism is the class of physical attributes that are mediated by a magnetic field, which refers to the capacity to induce attractive and repulsive phenomena in other entities. Electric currents and the magnetic moments of elementary particles ...
, presenting a paper entitled 'The Magnetic Properties of the Violet Rays of the Solar Spectrum' to the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in 1826, the second woman to do so. She also wrote several
mathematical Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
,
astronomical Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxies ...
, physical and
geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, and ...
texts, and was a strong advocate for
women's education Female education is a catch-all term of a complex set of issues and debates surrounding education (primary education, secondary education, tertiary education, and health education in particular) for girls and women. It is frequently called girls ...
. In 1835, she and
Caroline Herschel Caroline Lucretia Herschel (; 16 March 1750 – 9 January 1848) was a German born British astronomer, whose most significant contributions to astronomy were the discoveries of several comets, including the periodic comet 35P/Herschel–Rigolle ...
were the first two women elected as Honorary Members of the
Royal Astronomical Society (Whatever shines should be observed) , predecessor = , successor = , formation = , founder = , extinction = , merger = , merged = , type = NGO ...
. English mathematician Ada, Lady Lovelace, a pupil of Somerville, corresponded with
Charles Babbage Charles Babbage (; 26 December 1791 – 18 October 1871) was an English polymath. A mathematician, philosopher, inventor and mechanical engineer, Babbage originated the concept of a digital programmable computer. Babbage is considered ...
about applications for his
analytical engine The Analytical Engine was a proposed mechanical general-purpose computer designed by English mathematician and computer pioneer Charles Babbage. It was first described in 1837 as the successor to Babbage's difference engine, which was a des ...
. In her notes (1842–3) appended to her translation of
Luigi Menabrea Luigi Federico Menabrea (4 September 1809 – 24 May 1896), later made 1st Count Menabrea and 1st Marquess of Valdora, was an Italian general, statesman and mathematician who served as the seventh prime minister of Italy from 1867 to 1869. B ...
's article on the engine, she foresaw wide applications for it as a general-purpose computer, including composing music. She has been credited as writing the first computer program, though this has been disputed. In Germany, institutes for "higher" education of women (''
Höhere Mädchenschule Höhere Mädchenschule or Höhere Töchterschule were names of historic schools for the higher education of girls in German-speaking countries between the beginning of the 19th century and 1908. The names may mean higher education, but also educati ...
'', in some regions called ''
Lyzeum The lyceum is a category of educational institution defined within the education system of many countries, mainly in Europe. The definition varies among countries; usually it is a type of secondary school. Generally in that type of school the ...
'') were founded at the beginning of the century. The Deaconess Institute at
Kaiserswerth Kaiserswerth is one of the oldest quarters of the City of Düsseldorf, part of Borough 5. It is in the north of the city and next to the river Rhine. It houses the where Florence Nightingale worked. Kaiserswerth has an area of , and 7,923 inh ...
was established in 1836 to instruct women in
nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
.
Elizabeth Fry Elizabeth Fry (née Gurney; 21 May 1780 – 12 October 1845), sometimes referred to as Betsy Fry, was an English prison reformer, social reformer, philanthropist and Quaker. Fry was a major driving force behind new legislation to improve the tr ...
visited the institute in 1840 and was inspired to found the London Institute of Nursing, and
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...
studied there in 1851.''The Cambridge Illustrated History of Medicine'', R. Porter (editor), Cambridge University Press, 1996 In the US,
Maria Mitchell Maria Mitchell ( /məˈraɪə/; August 1, 1818 – June 28, 1889) was an American astronomer, librarian, naturalist, and educator. In 1847, she discovered a comet named 1847 VI (modern designation C/1847 T1) that was later known as " Miss Mi ...
made her name by discovering a comet in 1847, but also contributed calculations to the
Nautical Almanac A nautical almanac is a publication describing the positions of a selection of celestial bodies for the purpose of enabling navigators to use celestial navigation to determine the position of their ship while at sea. The Almanac specifies for ea ...
produced by the
United States Naval Observatory United States Naval Observatory (USNO) is a scientific and military facility that produces geopositioning, navigation and timekeeping data for the United States Navy and the United States Department of Defense. Established in 1830 as the Depo ...
. She became the first woman member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (abbreviation: AAA&S) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and ...
in 1848 and of the
American Association for the Advancement of Science The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...
in 1850. Other notable female scientists during this period include: * in Britain,
Mary Anning Mary Anning (21 May 1799 – 9 March 1847) was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for the discoveries she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel ...
(paleontologist),
Anna Atkins Anna Atkins (née Children; 16 March 1799 – 9 June 1871) was an English botanist and photographer. She is often considered the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images. Some sources say that she was the first woma ...
(botanist),
Janet Taylor Janet Taylor (born Jane Ann Ionn, 13 May 1804 – 25 January 1870) was an English astronomer, navigation expert, mathematician, meteorologist, and founder of the George Taylor Nautical Academy. She was the author of various astronomy and naviga ...
(astronomer) * in France, Marie-Sophie Germain (mathematician),
Jeanne Villepreux-Power Jeanne Villepreux-Power, born Jeanne Villepreux (24 September 1794 - 25 January 1871), was a pioneering French marine biologist who in 1832 was the first person to create aquaria for experimenting with aquatic organisms. The English biologist R ...
(marine biologist)


Late 19th century in western Europe

The latter part of the 19th century saw a rise in educational opportunities for women. Schools aiming to provide education for girls similar to that afforded to boys were founded in the UK, including the
North London Collegiate School North London Collegiate School (NLCS) is an independent school with a day school for girls in England. Founded in Camden Town, it is now located in Edgware, in the London Borough of Harrow. Associate schools are located in South Korea, Jeju I ...
(1850),
Cheltenham Ladies' College Cheltenham Ladies' College is an independent boarding and day school for girls aged 11 to 18 in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. Consistently ranked as one of the top all-girls' schools nationally, the school was established in 1853 to p ...
(1853) and the Girls' Public Day School Trust schools (from 1872). The first UK women's university college, Girton, was founded in 1869, and others soon followed: Newnham (1871) and Somerville (1879). The
Crimean War The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia. Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
(1854–6) contributed to establishing
nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
as a profession, making
Florence Nightingale Florence Nightingale (; 12 May 1820 – 13 August 1910) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, statistician and the founder of modern nursing. Nightingale came to prominence while serving as a manager and trainer of nurses during t ...
a household name. A public subscription allowed Nightingale to establish a school of nursing in London in 1860, and schools following her principles were established throughout the UK. Nightingale was also a pioneer in
public health Public health is "the science and art of preventing disease, prolonging life and promoting health through the organized efforts and informed choices of society, organizations, public and private, communities and individuals". Analyzing the det ...
as well as a statistician. James Barry became the first British woman to gain a medical qualification in 1812, passing as a man.
Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (9 June 1836 – 17 December 1917) was an English physician and suffragist. She was the first woman to qualify in Britain as a physician and surgeon. She was the co-founder of the first hospital staffed by women, ...
was the first openly female Briton to qualify medically, in 1865. With
Sophia Jex-Blake Sophia Louisa Jex-Blake (21 January 1840 – 7 January 1912) was an English physician, teacher and feminist. She led the campaign to secure women access to a University education when she and six other women, collectively known as the Edi ...
, American
Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 182131 May 1910) was a British physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the United Ki ...
and others, Garret Anderson founded the first UK medical school to train women, the
London School of Medicine for Women The London School of Medicine for Women (LSMW) established in 1874 was the first medical school in Britain to train women as doctors. The patrons, vice-presidents, and members of the committee that supported and helped found the London School of Me ...
, in 1874.
Annie Scott Dill Maunder Annie Scott Dill Maunder (née Russell) (14 April 1868 – 15 September 1947) was an Irish-British astronomer, who recorded the first evidence of the movement of sunspot emergence from the poles toward the equator over the sun's 11-year cycle. ...
was a pioneer in
astronomical photography Astrophotography, also known as astronomical imaging, is the photography or imaging of astronomical objects, celestial events, or areas of the night sky. The first photograph of an astronomical object (the Moon) was taken in 1840, but it was n ...
, especially of
sunspot Sunspots are phenomena on the Sun's photosphere that appear as temporary spots that are darker than the surrounding areas. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. Sun ...
s. A mathematics graduate of
Girton College Girton College is one of the Colleges of the University of Cambridge, 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. The college was established in 1869 by Emily Davies and Barbara Bodichon as the first women's college in Cambridge. In 1 ...
, Cambridge, she was first hired (in 1890) to be an assistant to
Edward Walter Maunder Edward Walter Maunder (12 April 1851 – 21 March 1928) was an English astronomer. His study of sunspots and the solar magnetic cycle led to his identification of the period from 1645 to 1715 that is now known as the Maunder Minimum. Early an ...
, discoverer of the Maunder Minimum, the head of the solar department at
Greenwich Observatory The Royal Observatory, Greenwich (ROG; known as the Old Royal Observatory from 1957 to 1998, when the working Royal Greenwich Observatory, RGO, temporarily moved south from Greenwich to Herstmonceux) is an observatory situated on a hill in G ...
. They worked together to observe
sunspot Sunspots are phenomena on the Sun's photosphere that appear as temporary spots that are darker than the surrounding areas. They are regions of reduced surface temperature caused by concentrations of magnetic flux that inhibit convection. Sun ...
s and to refine the techniques of solar photography. They married in 1895. Annie's mathematical skills made it possible to analyse the years of sunspot data that Maunder had been collecting at Greenwich. She also designed a small, portable wide-angle camera with a lens. In 1898, the Maunders traveled to India, where Annie took the first photographs of the sun's corona during a solar eclipse. By analysing the Cambridge records for both sunspots and
geomagnetic storm A geomagnetic storm, also known as a magnetic storm, is a temporary disturbance of the Earth's magnetosphere caused by a solar wind shock wave and/or cloud of magnetic field that interacts with the Earth's magnetic field. The disturbance that d ...
, they were able to show that specific regions of the sun's surface were the source of geomagnetic storms and that the sun did not radiate its energy uniformly into space, as
William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin, (26 June 182417 December 1907) was a British mathematician, mathematical physicist and engineer born in Belfast. Professor of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow for 53 years, he did important ...
had declared. In
Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
women could go to university from 1894 and were allowed to receive a PhD. In 1908 all remaining restrictions for women were terminated. Alphonse Rebière published a book in 1897, in France, entitled ''Les Femmes dans la science'' (Women in Science) which listed the contributions and publications of women in science. Other notable female scientists during this period include: * in Britain,
Hertha Marks Ayrton Phoebe Sarah Hertha Ayrton (28 April 1854 – 26 August 1923) was a British engineer, mathematician, physicist and inventor, and suffragette. Known in adult life as Hertha Ayrton, born Phoebe Sarah Marks, she was awarded the Hughes Medal by the ...
(mathematician, engineer), Margaret Huggins (astronomer),
Beatrix Potter Helen Beatrix Potter (, 28 July 186622 December 1943) was an English writer, illustrator, natural scientist, and conservationist. She is best known for her children's books featuring animals, such as ''The Tale of Peter Rabbit'', which was he ...
(mycologist) * in France, Dorothea Klumpke-Roberts (American-born astronomer) * in Germany,
Amalie Dietrich Koncordie Amalie Dietrich (née Nelle) (26 May 1821 – 9 March 1891) was a German naturalist who was best known for her work in Australia from 1863 to 1872, collecting specimens for the Museum Godeffroy in Hamburg. Australia Dietrich was one o ...
(naturalist),
Agnes Pockels Agnes Luise Wilhelmine Pockels (14 February 1862 – 21 November 1935) was a German chemist whose research was fundamental in establishing the modern discipline known as surface science, which describes the properties of liquid and solid surf ...
(physicist) * in Russia and Sweden,
Sofia Kovalevskaya Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (russian: link=no, Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), born Korvin-Krukovskaya ( – 10 February 1891), was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differen ...
(mathematician)


Late nineteenth-century Russians

In the second half of the 19th century, a large proportion of the most successful women in the
STEM Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...
fields were Russians. Although many women received advanced training in medicine in the 1870s, in other fields women were barred and had to go to western Europe—mainly Switzerland—in order to pursue scientific studies. In her book about these "women of the ighteensixties" (шестидесятницы), as they were called,
Ann Hibner Koblitz Ann Hibner Koblitz (born 1952) is a Professor Emerita of Women and Gender Studies at Arizona State University known for her studies of the history of women in science. She is the Director of the Kovalevskaia Fund, which supports women in science ...
writes:Ann Hibner Koblitz, ''Science, Women and Revolution in Russia'', Routledge, 2000. Among the successful scientists were
Nadezhda Suslova Nadezhda Prokofyevna Suslova (russian: Надежда Прокофьевна Суслова; 1 September 1843 – 20 April 1918) was Russia's first woman medical doctor and the sister of Polina Suslova. She worked as a gynecologist in Nizhny No ...
(1843–1918), the first woman in the world to obtain a
medical doctorate Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. T ...
fully equivalent to men's degrees; Maria Bokova-Sechenova (1839–1929), a pioneer of women's medical education who received two doctoral degrees, one in medicine in Zürich and one in physiology in Vienna;
Iulia Lermontova Iulia () is a feminine given name tracing back to the Ancient Rome, ancient Romans. It is still found in several contemporary languages such as Romanian language, Romanian. Another related name is Iuliana. Iulia may refer to: Given name *Iulia Aqui ...
(1846–1919), the first woman in the world to receive a doctoral degree in chemistry; the marine biologist Sofia Pereiaslavtseva (1849–1903), director of the Sevastopol Biological Station and winner of the Kessler Prize of the Russian Society of Natural Scientists; and the mathematician
Sofia Kovalevskaia Sofya Vasilyevna Kovalevskaya (russian: link=no, Софья Васильевна Ковалевская), born Korvin-Krukovskaya ( – 10 February 1891), was a Russian mathematician who made noteworthy contributions to analysis, partial differen ...
(1850–1891), the first woman in 19th century Europe to receive a doctorate in mathematics and the first to become a university professor in any field.


Late nineteenth century in the United States

In the later nineteenth century the rise of the women's college provided jobs for women scientists, and opportunities for education. Women's colleges produced a disproportionate number of women who went on for PhDs in science. Many
coeducation Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to t ...
al colleges and universities also opened or started to admit women during this period; such institutions included just over 3000 women in 1875, by 1900 numbered almost 20,000. An example is
Elizabeth Blackwell Elizabeth Blackwell (3 February 182131 May 1910) was a British physician, notable as the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States, and the first woman on the Medical Register of the General Medical Council for the United Ki ...
, who became the first certified female doctor in the US when she graduated from
Geneva Medical College Geneva Medical College was founded on September 15, 1834, in Geneva, New York, as a separate department (college) of Geneva College, currently known as Hobart and William Smith Colleges. In 1871, the medical school was transferred to Syracuse ...
in 1849. With her sister,
Emily Blackwell Emily Blackwell (October 8, 1826 – September 7, 1910) was the second woman to earn a medical degree at what is now Case Western Reserve University, after Nancy Talbot Clark. In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame. ...
, and
Marie Zakrzewska Marie Elisabeth Zakrzewska (6 September 1829 – 12 May 1902) was a Polish-American physician who made her name as a pioneering female doctor in the United States. As a Berlin native, she found great interest in medicine after assisting her mother ...
, Blackwell founded the
New York Infirmary for Women and Children NewYork-Presbyterian Lower Manhattan Hospital is a nonprofit, Acute (medicine), acute care, teaching hospital in New York City and is the only hospital in Lower Manhattan south of Greenwich Village. It is part of the NewYork-Presbyterian Healthca ...
in 1857 and the first women's medical college in 1868, providing both training and clinical experience for women doctors. She also published several books on medical education for women. In 1876, Elizabeth Bragg became the first woman to graduate with a
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
degree in the United States, from the
University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
.


Early twentieth century


Europe before World War II

Marie Skłodowska-Curie, the first woman to win a Nobel prize in 1903 (physics), went on to become a double Nobel prize winner in 1911, both for her work on
radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...
. She was the first person to win two Nobel prizes, a feat accomplished by only three others since then. She also was the first woman to teach at
Sorbonne University Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...
in
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
,
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
. Alice Perry is understood to be the first woman to graduate with a degree in
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewage ...
in the then
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was a sovereign state in the British Isles that existed between 1801 and 1922, when it included all of Ireland. It was established by the Acts of Union 1800, which merged the Kingdom of Great B ...
, in 1906 at Queen's College, Galway, Ireland.
Lise Meitner Elise Meitner ( , ; 7 November 1878 – 27 October 1968) was an Austrian-Swedish physicist who was one of those responsible for the discovery of the element protactinium and nuclear fission. While working at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute on rad ...
played a major role in the discovery of nuclear fission. As head of the physics section at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute in Berlin she collaborated closely with the head of chemistry
Otto Hahn Otto Hahn (; 8 March 1879 – 28 July 1968) was a German chemist who was a pioneer in the fields of radioactivity and radiochemistry. He is referred to as the father of nuclear chemistry and father of nuclear fission. Hahn and Lise Meitner ...
on atomic physics until forced to flee Berlin in 1938. In 1939, in collaboration with her nephew Otto Frisch, Meitner derived the theoretical explanation for an experiment performed by Hahn and
Fritz Strassman Friedrich Wilhelm Strassmann (; 22 February 1902 – 22 April 1980) was a German chemist who, with Otto Hahn in December 1938, identified the element barium as a product of the bombardment of uranium with neutrons. Their observation was the k ...
in Berlin, thereby demonstrating the occurrence of
nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
. The possibility that Fermi's bombardment of uranium with neutrons in 1934 had instead produced fission by breaking up the nucleus into lighter elements, had actually first been raised in print in 1934, by chemist
Ida Noddack Ida Noddack (25 February 1896 – 24 September 1978), '' née'' Tacke, was a German chemist and physicist. In 1934 she was the first to mention the idea later named nuclear fission. With her husband - Walter Noddack - and Otto Berg she discov ...
(co-discover of the element
rhenium Rhenium is a chemical element with the symbol Re and atomic number 75. It is a silvery-gray, heavy, third-row transition metal in group 7 of the periodic table. With an estimated average concentration of 1 part per billion (ppb), rhenium is one ...
), but this suggestion had been ignored at the time, as no group made a concerted effort to find any of these light radioactive fission products.
Maria Montessori Maria Tecla Artemisia Montessori ( , ; August 31, 1870 – May 6, 1952) was an Italian physician and educator best known for the philosophy of education that bears her name, and her writing on scientific pedagogy. At an early age, Montessori e ...
was the first woman in
Southern Europe Southern Europe is the southern regions of Europe, region of Europe. It is also known as Mediterranean Europe, as its geography is essentially marked by the Mediterranean Sea. Definitions of Southern Europe include some or all of these countrie ...
to qualify as a physician. She developed an interest in the diseases of children and believed in the necessity of educating those recognized to be ineducable. In the case of the latter she argued for the development of training for teachers along Froebelian lines and developed the principle that was also to inform her general educational program, which is the first the education of the senses, then the education of the intellect. Montessori introduced a teaching program that allowed defective children to read and write. She sought to teach skills not by having children repeatedly try it, but by developing exercises that prepare them.
Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy NoetherEmmy is the ''Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noethe ...
revolutionized abstract algebra, filled in gaps in relativity, and was responsible for a critical
theorem In mathematics, a theorem is a statement that has been proved, or can be proved. The ''proof'' of a theorem is a logical argument that uses the inference rules of a deductive system to establish that the theorem is a logical consequence of th ...
about conserved quantities in physics. One notes that the
Erlangen program In mathematics, the Erlangen program is a method of characterizing geometries based on group theory and projective geometry. It was published by Felix Klein in 1872 as ''Vergleichende Betrachtungen über neuere geometrische Forschungen.'' It is nam ...
attempted to identify invariants under a group of transformations. On 16 July 1918, before a scientific organization in
Göttingen Göttingen (, , ; nds, Chöttingen) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. At the end of 2019, t ...
,
Felix Klein Christian Felix Klein (; 25 April 1849 – 22 June 1925) was a German mathematician and mathematics educator, known for his work with group theory, complex analysis, non-Euclidean geometry, and on the associations between geometry and group ...
read a paper written by
Emmy Noether Amalie Emmy NoetherEmmy is the ''Rufname'', the second of two official given names, intended for daily use. Cf. for example the résumé submitted by Noether to Erlangen University in 1907 (Erlangen University archive, ''Promotionsakt Emmy Noethe ...
, because she was not allowed to present the paper herself. In particular, in what is referred to in physics as
Noether's theorem Noether's theorem or Noether's first theorem states that every differentiable symmetry of the action of a physical system with conservative forces has a corresponding conservation law. The theorem was proven by mathematician Emmy Noether in ...
, this paper identified the conditions under which the
Poincaré group The Poincaré group, named after Henri Poincaré (1906), was first defined by Hermann Minkowski (1908) as the group of Minkowski spacetime isometries. It is a ten-dimensional non-abelian Lie group that is of importance as a model in our und ...
of transformations (now called a
gauge group In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian (and hence the dynamics of the system itself) does not change (is invariant) under local transformations according to certain smooth families of operations ( Lie group ...
) for
general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity and Einstein's theory of gravity, is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of gravitation in modern physics ...
defines
conservation laws In physics, a conservation law states that a particular measurable property of an isolated physical system does not change as the system evolves over time. Exact conservation laws include conservation of energy, conservation of linear momentum, ...
. Noether's papers made the requirements for the conservation laws precise. Among mathematicians, Noether is best known for her fundamental contributions to abstract algebra, where the adjective
noetherian In mathematics, the adjective Noetherian is used to describe objects that satisfy an ascending or descending chain condition on certain kinds of subobjects, meaning that certain ascending or descending sequences of subobjects must have finite lengt ...
is nowadays commonly used on many sorts of objects.
Mary Cartwright Dame Mary Lucy Cartwright, (17 December 1900 – 3 April 1998) was a British mathematician. She was one of the pioneers of what would later become known as chaos theory. Along with J. E. Littlewood, Cartwright saw many solutions to a problem ...
was a British mathematician who was the first to analyze a dynamical system with chaos.
Inge Lehmann Inge Lehmann (13 May 1888 – 21 February 1993) was a Danish seismologist and geophysicist. In 1936, she discovered that the Earth has a solid inner core inside a molten outer core. Before that, seismologists believed Earth's core to be a sin ...
, a Danish seismologist, first suggested in 1936 that inside the Earth's molten core there may be a solid
inner core Earth's inner core is the innermost geologic layer of planet Earth. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about , which is about 20% of Earth's radius or 70% of the Moon's radius. There are no samples of Earth's core accessible for di ...
. Women such as
Margaret Fountaine Margaret Elizabeth Fountaine (16 May 1862 – 21 April 1940), was a Victorian lepidopterist (a person interested in butterflies and moths), natural history illustrator, diarist, and traveller who published in The Entomologist's Record and Journa ...
continued to contribute detailed observations and illustrations in botany, entomology, and related observational fields. Joan Beauchamp Procter, an outstanding
herpetologist Herpetology (from Greek ἑρπετόν ''herpetón'', meaning "reptile" or "creeping animal") is the branch of zoology concerned with the study of amphibians (including frogs, toads, salamanders, newts, and caecilians (gymnophiona)) and rept ...
, was the first woman Curator of Reptiles for the
Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...
at
London Zoo London Zoo, also known as ZSL London Zoo or London Zoological Gardens is the world's oldest scientific zoo. It was opened in London on 27 April 1828, and was originally intended to be used as a collection for science, scientific study. In 1831 o ...
.
Florence Sabin Florence Rena Sabin (November 9, 1871 – October 3, 1953) was an American medical scientist. She was a pioneer for women in science; she was the first woman to hold a full professorship at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, the first woman el ...
was an American medical scientist. Sabin was the first woman faculty member at Johns Hopkins in 1902, and the first woman full-time professor there in 1917. Her scientific and research experience is notable. Sabin published over 100 scientific papers and multiple books.


United States before and during World War II

Women moved into science in significant numbers by 1900, helped by the women's colleges and by opportunities at some of the new universities.
Margaret Rossiter Margaret W. Rossiter (born July 1944) is an American historian of science, and Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science, at Cornell University. Rossiter coined the term Matilda effect for the systematic suppression of information ...
's books ''Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940'' and ''Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action 1940–1972'' provide an overview of this period, stressing the opportunities women found in separate women's work in science. In 1892,
Ellen Swallow Richards Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (December 3, 1842 – March 30, 1911) was an American industrial and safety engineer, environmental chemist, and university faculty member in the United States during the 19th century. Her pioneering work i ...
called for the "christening of a new science" – "
oekology Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...
" (ecology) in a Boston lecture. This new science included the study of "consumer nutrition" and environmental education. This interdisciplinary branch of science was later specialized into what is currently known as ecology, while the consumer nutrition focus split off and was eventually relabeled as
home economics Home economics, also called domestic science or family and consumer sciences, is a subject concerning human development, personal and family finances, consumer issues, housing and interior design, nutrition and food preparation, as well as texti ...
, which provided another avenue for women to study science. Richards helped to form the
American Home Economics Association American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) is an American professional association that networks professionals in the area of family and consumer science. It was founded in 1908 as the American Home Economics Association by Ellen ...
, which published a journal, the ''
Journal of Home Economics A journal, from the Old French ''journal'' (meaning "daily"), may refer to: *Bullet journal, a method of personal organization *Diary, a record of what happened over the course of a day or other period *Daybook, also known as a general journal, a ...
'', and hosted conferences. Home economics departments were formed at many colleges, especially at land grant institutions. In her work at MIT, Ellen Richards also introduced the first biology course in its history as well as the focus area of sanitary engineering. Women also found opportunities in
botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
and
embryology Embryology (from Greek ἔμβρυον, ''embryon'', "the unborn, embryo"; and -λογία, '' -logia'') is the branch of animal biology that studies the prenatal development of gametes (sex cells), fertilization, and development of embryos and ...
. In
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, women earned doctorates but were encouraged to specialize in educational and
child psychology Developmental psychology is the scientific study of how and why humans grow, change, and adapt across the course of their lives. Originally concerned with infants and children, the field has expanded to include adolescence, adult development ...
and to take jobs in clinical settings, such as hospitals and social welfare agencies. In 1901,
Annie Jump Cannon Annie Jump Cannon (; December 11, 1863 – April 13, 1941) was an American astronomer whose cataloging work was instrumental in the development of contemporary stellar classification. With Edward C. Pickering, she is credited with the creation of ...
first noticed that it was a star's temperature that was the principal distinguishing feature among different spectra. This led to re-ordering of the ABC types by temperature instead of hydrogen absorption-line strength. Due to Cannon's work, most of the then-existing classes of stars were thrown out as redundant. Afterward, astronomy was left with the seven primary classes recognized today, in order: O, B, A, F, G, K, M; that has since been extended.
Henrietta Swan Leavitt Henrietta Swan Leavitt (; July 4, 1868 – December 12, 1921) was an American astronomer. A graduate of Radcliffe College, she worked at the Harvard College Observatory as a "computer", tasked with examining photographic plates in order to measu ...
first published her study of variable stars in 1908. This discovery became known as the "period-luminosity relationship" of
Cepheid variable A Cepheid variable () is a type of star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature and producing changes in brightness with a well-defined stable period and amplitude. A strong direct relationship between a Cepheid varia ...
s. Our picture of the universe was changed forever, largely because of Leavitt's discovery. The accomplishments of
Edwin Hubble Edwin Powell Hubble (November 20, 1889 – September 28, 1953) was an Americans, American astronomer. He played a crucial role in establishing the fields of extragalactic astronomy and observational cosmology. Hubble proved that many objects ...
, renowned American astronomer, were made possible by Leavitt's groundbreaking research and Leavitt's Law. "If Henrietta Leavitt had provided the key to determine the size of the cosmos, then it was Edwin Powell Hubble who inserted it in the lock and provided the observations that allowed it to be turned", wrote David H. and Matthew D.H. Clark in their book ''Measuring the Cosmos''. Hubble often said that Leavitt deserved the Nobel for her work. Gösta Mittag-Leffler of the Swedish Academy of Sciences had begun paperwork on her nomination in 1924, only to learn that she had died of cancer three years earlier (the Nobel prize cannot be awarded posthumously). In 1925, Harvard graduate student
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin (born Cecilia Helena Payne; – ) was a British-born American astronomer and astrophysicist who proposed in her 1925 doctoral thesis that stars were composed primarily of hydrogen and helium. Her groundbreaking conclus ...
demonstrated for the first time from existing evidence on the spectra of stars that stars were made up almost exclusively of
hydrogen Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
and
helium Helium (from el, ἥλιος, helios, lit=sun) is a chemical element with the symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. ...
, one of the most fundamental theories in stellar
astrophysics Astrophysics is a science that employs the methods and principles of physics and chemistry in the study of astronomical objects and phenomena. As one of the founders of the discipline said, Astrophysics "seeks to ascertain the nature of the h ...
. Canadian-born
Maud Menten Maud Leonora Menten (March 20, 1879 – July 17, 1960) was a Canadian physician and chemist. As a bio-medical and medical researcher, she made significant contributions to enzyme kinetics and histochemistry and invented a procedure that rema ...
worked in the US and Germany. Her most famous work was on enzyme kinetics together with
Leonor Michaelis Leonor Michaelis (16 January 1875 – 8 October 1949) was a German biochemist, physical chemist, and physician, known for his work with Maud Menten on enzyme kinetics in 1913, as well as for work on enzyme inhibition, pH and quinones. E ...
, based on earlier findings of
Victor Henri Victor Henri (6 June 1872 – 21 June 1940) was a French-Russian Physical chemistry, physical chemist and physiologist. He was born in Marseilles as a son of Russian parents. He is known mainly as an early pioneer in enzyme kinetics. He publishe ...
. This resulted in the Michaelis–Menten equations. Menten also invented the azo-dye coupling reaction for
alkaline phosphatase The enzyme alkaline phosphatase (EC 3.1.3.1, alkaline phosphomonoesterase; phosphomonoesterase; glycerophosphatase; alkaline phosphohydrolase; alkaline phenyl phosphatase; orthophosphoric-monoester phosphohydrolase (alkaline optimum), systematic ...
, which is still used in histochemistry. She characterised bacterial toxins from ''B. paratyphosus'', ''Streptococcus scarlatina'' and ''
Salmonella ''Salmonella'' is a genus of rod-shaped (bacillus) Gram-negative bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. The two species of ''Salmonella'' are ''Salmonella enterica'' and ''Salmonella bongori''. ''S. enterica'' is the type species and is fur ...
ssp.'', and conducted the first
electrophoretic Electrophoresis, from Ancient Greek ἤλεκτρον (ḗlektron, "amber") and φόρησις (phórēsis, "the act of bearing"), is the motion of dispersed particles relative to a fluid under the influence of a spatially uniform electric fi ...
separation of proteins in 1944. She worked on the properties of
hemoglobin Hemoglobin (haemoglobin BrE) (from the Greek word αἷμα, ''haîma'' 'blood' + Latin ''globus'' 'ball, sphere' + ''-in'') (), abbreviated Hb or Hgb, is the iron-containing oxygen-transport metalloprotein present in red blood cells (erythrocyte ...
, regulation of
blood sugar Glycaemia, also known as blood sugar level, blood sugar concentration, or blood glucose level is the measure of glucose concentrated in the blood of humans or other animals. Approximately 4 grams of glucose, a simple sugar, is present in the blo ...
level, and kidney function. World War II brought some new opportunities. The
Office of Scientific Research and Development The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II. Arrangements were made for its creation during May 1 ...
, under
Vannevar Bush Vannevar Bush ( ; March 11, 1890 – June 28, 1974) was an American engineer, inventor and science administrator, who during World War II headed the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD), through which almost all wartime ...
, began in 1941 to keep a registry of men and women trained in the sciences. Because there was a shortage of workers, some women were able to work in jobs they might not otherwise have accessed. Many women worked on the
Manhattan Project The Manhattan Project was a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. It was led by the United States with the support of the United Kingdom and Canada. From 1942 to 1946, the project w ...
or on scientific projects for the United States military services. Women who worked on the Manhattan Project included
Leona Woods Leona Harriet Woods (August 9, 1919 – November 10, 1986), later known as Leona Woods Marshall and Leona Woods Marshall Libby, was an American physicist who helped build the first nuclear reactor and the first atomic bomb. At age 23, she ...
Marshall, Katharine Way, and
Chien-Shiung Wu ) , spouse = , residence = , nationality = ChineseAmerican , field = Physics , work_institutions = Institute of Physics, Academia SinicaUniversity of California at BerkeleySmith CollegePrinceton UniversityColumbia UniversityZhejiang Unive ...
. It was actually Wu who confirmed Enrico Fermi's hypothesis through her earlier draft that
Xe-135 Xenon-135 (135Xe) is an unstable isotope of xenon with a half-life of about 9.2 hours. 135Xe is a fission product of uranium and it is the most powerful known neutron-absorbing nuclear poison (2 million barns; up to 3 million barns under reactor ...
impeded the
B reactor The B Reactor at the Hanford Site, near Richland, Washington, was the first large-scale nuclear reactor ever built. The project was a key part of the Manhattan Project, the United States nuclear weapons development program during World War II. I ...
from working. The adjustments made would quickly let the project resume its course. Wu would later also confirm Albert Einstein's EPR Paradox in the first experimental corroboration, and prove the first violation of Parity and Charge Conjugate Symmetry, thereby laying the conceptual basis for the future
Standard model The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (electromagnetism, electromagnetic, weak interaction, weak and strong interactions - excluding gravity) in the universe and classifying a ...
of
Particle Physics Particle physics or high energy physics is the study of fundamental particles and forces that constitute matter and radiation. The fundamental particles in the universe are classified in the Standard Model as fermions (matter particles) an ...
, and the rapid development of the new field. Women in other disciplines looked for ways to apply their expertise to the war effort. Three nutritionists, Lydia J. Roberts, Hazel K. Stiebeling, and
Helen S. Mitchell Helen Swift Mitchell (September 21, 1895 - December 12, 1984) was an American biochemist and nutritionist. She was the research director at the Battle Creek Sanitarium, and taught courses in nutrition at Battle Creek College and University of Ma ...
, developed the
Recommended Dietary Allowance The Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) is a system of nutrition recommendations from the National Academy of Medicine (NAM) of the National Academies (United States). It was introduced in 1997 in order to broaden the existing guidelines known as Reco ...
in 1941 to help military and civilian groups make plans for group feeding situations. The RDAs proved necessary, especially, once foods began to be
rationed Rationing is the controlled distribution of scarce resources, goods, services, or an artificial restriction of demand. Rationing controls the size of the ration, which is one's allowed portion of the resources being distributed on a particular ...
.
Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental m ...
worked for the
United States Bureau of Fisheries United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...
, writing brochures to encourage Americans to consume a wider variety of fish and seafood. She also contributed to research to assist the Navy in developing techniques and equipment for submarine detection. Women in psychology formed the National Council of Women Psychologists, which organized projects related to the war effort. The NCWP elected Florence Laura Goodenough president. In the social sciences, several women contributed to the Japanese Evacuation and Resettlement Study, based at the
University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...
. This study was led by sociologist
Dorothy Swaine Thomas Dorothy Swaine Thomas (October 24, 1899 – May 1, 1977) was an American sociologist and economist. She was the 42nd President of the American Sociological Association, the first woman in that role. Life and career Thomas was born on October 2 ...
, who directed the project and synthesized information from her informants, mostly graduate students in anthropology. These included
Tamie Tsuchiyama Tamie Tsuchiyama (8 May 1915 – 12 May 1984), a Nisei woman, was the only Japanese-American to work full time for the Japanese-American Evacuation and Resettlement Study. She kept a wide-range sociological journal and ethnographic reports while ...
, the only
Japanese-American are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asia ...
woman to contribute to the study, and Rosalie Hankey Wax. In the
United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
, female scientists conducted a wide range of research. Mary Sears, a planktonologist, researched military oceanographic techniques as head of the Hydgrographic Office's Oceanographic Unit. Florence van Straten, a chemist, worked as an aerological engineer. She studied the effects of weather on military combat.
Grace Hopper Grace Brewster Hopper (; December 9, 1906 – January 1, 1992) was an American computer scientist, mathematician, and United States Navy Rear admiral (United States), rear admiral. One of the first programmers of the Harvard Mark I, Harvard Mar ...
, a mathematician, became one of the first
computer programmers A computer programmer, sometimes referred to as a software developer, a software engineer, a programmer or a coder, is a person who creates computer programs — often for larger computer software. A programmer is someone who writes/creates ...
for the
Mark I Mark I or Mark 1 often refers to the first version of a weapon or military vehicle, and is sometimes used in a similar fashion in civilian product development. In some instances, the Arabic numeral "1" is substituted for the Roman numeral "I". " ...
computer.
Mina Spiegel Rees Mina Spiegel Rees (August 2, 1902 – October 25, 1997) was an American mathematician. She was the first female President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1971) and head of the mathematics department of the Office of N ...
, also a mathematician, was the chief technical aide for the Applied Mathematics Panel of the
National Defense Research Committee The National Defense Research Committee (NDRC) was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the Un ...
.
Gerty Cori Gerty Theresa Cori (; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was an Austro-Hungarian and American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Me ...
was a biochemist who discovered the mechanism by which glycogen, a derivative of glucose, is transformed in the muscles to form lactic acid, and is later reformed as a way to store energy. For this discovery she and her colleagues were awarded the Nobel prize in 1947, making her the third woman and the first American woman to win a Nobel Prize in science. She was the first woman ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Cori is among several scientists whose works are commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp.


Late 20th century to early 21st century

Nina Byers Nina Byers (January 19, 1930 – June 5, 2014) was a theoretical physicist, Research Professor and Professor of Physics emeritus in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, UCLA, and Fellow of Somerville College, Oxford. Contributions Byers recei ...
notes that before 1976, fundamental contributions of women to physics were rarely acknowledged. Women worked unpaid or in positions lacking the status they deserved. That imbalance is gradually being redressed. In the early 1980s, Margaret Rossiter presented two concepts for understanding the statistics behind women in science as well as the disadvantages women continued to suffer. She coined the terms "hierarchical segregation" and "territorial segregation." The former term describes the phenomenon in which the further one goes up the chain of command in the field, the smaller the presence of women. The latter describes the phenomenon in which women "cluster in scientific disciplines." A recent book titled ''Athena Unbound'' provides a life-course analysis (based on interviews and surveys) of women in science from early childhood interest, through university, graduate school and the academic workplace. The thesis of this book is that "Women face a special series of gender related barriers to entry and success in scientific careers that persist, despite recent advances". The L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science were set up in 1998, with prizes alternating each year between the materials science and life sciences. One award is given for each geographical region of Africa and the Middle East, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and North America. By 2017, these awards had recognised almost 100 laureates from 30 countries. Two of the laureates have gone on to win the Nobel Prize,
Ada Yonath Ada E. Yonath ( he, עדה יונת, ; born 22 June 1939) is an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of ribosomes. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular ...
(2008) and
Elizabeth Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, S ...
(2009). Fifteen promising young researchers also receive an International Rising Talent fellowship each year within this programme.


Europe after World War II

South-African born physicist and radiobiologist
Tikvah Alper Tikvah Alper (22 January 1909 – 2 February 1995) trained as a physicist and became a distinguished radiobiologist. Among many other initiatives and discoveries, she was among the first to find evidence indicating that the infectious agent in ...
(1909–95), working in the UK, developed many fundamental insights into biological mechanisms, including the (negative) discovery that the infective agent in
scrapie Scrapie () is a fatal, degenerative disease affecting the nervous systems of sheep and goats. It is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and as such it is thought to be caused by a prion. Scrapie has been known since ...
could not be a virus or other eukaryotic structure. French virologist
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (; born 30 July 1947) is a French virologist and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Division (french: Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales) and Professor at the in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sino ...
performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS, for which she shared the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. In July 1967,
Jocelyn Bell Burnell Dame Susan Jocelyn Bell Burnell (; Bell; born 15 July 1943) is an astrophysicist from Northern Ireland who, as a postgraduate student, discovered the first radio pulsars in 1967. The discovery eventually earned the Nobel Prize in Physics in ...
discovered evidence for the first known radio pulsar, which resulted in the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for her
supervisor A supervisor, or lead, (also known as foreman, boss, overseer, facilitator, monitor, area coordinator, line-manager or sometimes gaffer) is the job title of a lower-level management position that is primarily based on authority over workers or ...
. She was president of the
Institute of Physics The Institute of Physics (IOP) is a UK-based learned society and professional body that works to advance physics education, research and application. It was founded in 1874 and has a worldwide membership of over 20,000. The IOP is the Physica ...
from October 2008 until October 2010. Astrophysicist
Margaret Burbidge Eleanor Margaret Burbidge, FRS (; 12 August 1919 – 5 April 2020) was a British-American observational astronomer and astrophysicist. In the 1950s, she was one of the founders of stellar nucleosynthesis and was first author of the influentia ...
was a member of the B2FH group responsible for originating the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis, which explains how elements are formed in stars. She has held a number of prestigious posts, including the directorship of the Royal Greenwich Observatory.
Mary Cartwright Dame Mary Lucy Cartwright, (17 December 1900 – 3 April 1998) was a British mathematician. She was one of the pioneers of what would later become known as chaos theory. Along with J. E. Littlewood, Cartwright saw many solutions to a problem ...
was a mathematician and student of
G. H. Hardy Godfrey Harold Hardy (7 February 1877 – 1 December 1947) was an English mathematician, known for his achievements in number theory and mathematical analysis. In biology, he is known for the Hardy–Weinberg principle, a basic principle of pop ...
. Her work on nonlinear differential equations was influential in the field of
dynamical system In mathematics, a dynamical system is a system in which a Function (mathematics), function describes the time dependence of a Point (geometry), point in an ambient space. Examples include the mathematical models that describe the swinging of a ...
s.
Rosalind Franklin Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, co ...
was a crystallographer, whose work helped to elucidate the fine structures of coal,
graphite Graphite () is a crystalline form of the element carbon. It consists of stacked layers of graphene. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable form of carbon under standard conditions. Synthetic and natural graphite are consumed on large ...
, DNA and viruses. In 1953, the work she did on DNA allowed Watson and
Crick Crick may refer to: Places * Crick, Monmouthshire, Wales * Crick, Northamptonshire, England * Crick Road, Oxford, England People with the name * Crick (surname) Other uses * Crick, the cricket from ''Beat Bugs'' * Francis Crick Institute ...
to conceive their model of the structure of DNA. Her photograph of DNA gave Watson and Crick a basis for their DNA research, and they were awarded the Nobel Prize without giving due credit to Franklin, who had died of cancer in 1958.
Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...
is a British primatologist considered to be the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees and is best known for her over 55-year study of social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees. She is the founder of the
Jane Goodall Institute The Jane Goodall Institute (JGI) is a global wildlife and environment conservation organization headquartered in Washington, DC. It was founded in 1977 by English primatologist Jane Goodall. The institute has offices in more than twenty-five coun ...
and the
Roots & Shoots Roots & Shoots was founded by Jane Goodall, DBE in 1991 with the goal of bringing together youth from preschool to university age to work on environmental, conservation and humanitarian issues. The organization has local chapters in over 140 count ...
programme.
Dorothy Hodgkin Dorothy Mary Crowfoot Hodgkin (née Crowfoot; 12 May 1910 – 29 July 1994) was a Nobel Prize-winning British chemist who advanced the technique of X-ray crystallography to determine the structure of biomolecules, which became essential fo ...
analyzed the molecular structure of complex chemicals by studying diffraction patterns caused by passing X-rays through crystals. She won the 1964 Nobel prize for chemistry for discovering the structure of vitamin B12, becoming the third woman to win the prize for chemistry.
Irène Joliot-Curie Irène Joliot-Curie (; ; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was award ...
, daughter of Marie Curie, won the 1935 Nobel Prize for chemistry with her husband
Frédéric Joliot Frédéric and Frédérick are the French versions of the common male given name Frederick. They may refer to: In artistry: * Frédéric Back, Canadian award-winning animator * Frédéric Bartholdi, French sculptor * Frédéric Bazille, Impress ...
for their work in radioactive isotopes leading to
nuclear fission Nuclear fission is a reaction in which the nucleus of an atom splits into two or more smaller nuclei. The fission process often produces gamma photons, and releases a very large amount of energy even by the energetic standards of radio ...
. This made the Curies the family with the most Nobel laureates to date. Palaeoanthropologist
Mary Leakey Mary Douglas Leakey, FBA (née Nicol, 6 February 1913 – 9 December 1996) was a British paleoanthropologist who discovered the first fossilised ''Proconsul A proconsul was an official of ancient Rome who acted on behalf of a consul. A pro ...
discovered the first skull of a fossil ape on Rusinga Island and also a noted robust Australopithecine. Italian neurologist
Rita Levi-Montalcini Rita Levi-Montalcini (, ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the ...
received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of Nerve growth factor (NGF). Her work allowed for a further potential understanding of different diseases such as tumors, delayed healing, malformations, and others. This research led to her winning the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine alongside Stanley Cohen in 1986. While making advancements in medicine and science, Rita Levi-Montalcini was also active politically throughout her life. She was appointed a
Senator for Life A senator for life is a member of the senate or equivalent upper chamber of a legislature who has life tenure. , six Italian senators out of 206, two out of the 41 Burundian senators, one Congolese senator out of 109, and all members of the Bri ...
in the Italian Senate in 2001 and is the oldest Nobel laureate ever to have lived. Zoologist
Anne McLaren Dame Anne Laura Dorinthea McLaren, (26 April 1927 – 7 July 2007) was a British scientist who was a leading figure in developmental biology. Her work helped lead to human in vitro fertilisation (IVF),in vitro fertilization In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) ...
. She became the first female officer of the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
in 331 years. Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995 for research on the genetic control of embryonic development. She also started the Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Foundation (Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard Stiftung), to aid promising young female German scientists with children. Bertha Swirles was a theoretical physicist who made a number of contributions to early quantum mechanics, quantum theory. She co-authored the well-known textbook ''Methods of Mathematical Physics'' with her husband Sir Harold Jeffreys.


United States after World War II

Kay McNulty, Jean Bartik, Betty Jennings, Betty Holberton, Betty Snyder, Marlyn Wescoff, Fran Bilas and Ruth Lichterman were six of the original programmers for the ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer. Linda B. Buck is a neurobiologist who was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Richard Axel for their work on olfactory receptors.
Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book ''Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental m ...
was a marine biologist from the United States. She is credited with being the founder of the environmental movement. The biologist and activist published ''Silent Spring'', a work on the dangers of pesticides, in 1962. The publishing of her environmental science book led to the questioning of usage of harmful pesticides and other chemicals in agricultural settings. This led to a campaign to attempt to ultimately discredit Carson. However, the federal government called for a review of DDT which concluded with DDT being banned. Carson later passed away from cancer in 1964 at 57 years old. Eugenie Clark, popularly known as The Shark Lady, was an American ichthyologist known for her research on poisonous fish of the tropical seas and on the behavior of sharks. Ann Druyan is an American writer, lecturer and producer specializing in cosmology and popular science. Druyan has credited her knowledge of science to the 20 years she spent studying with her late husband, Carl Sagan, rather than formal academic training. She was responsible for the selection of music on the Voyager Golden Record for the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 exploratory missions. Druyan also sponsored the Cosmos 1 spacecraft. Gertrude B. Elion was an American biochemist and pharmacologist, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1988 for her work on the differences in biochemistry between normal human cells and pathogens. Sandra Moore Faber, with Robert Jackson (scientist), Robert Jackson, discovered the Faber–Jackson relation between luminosity and stellar dispersion velocity in elliptical galaxy, elliptical galaxies. She also headed the team which discovered the Great Attractor, a large concentration of mass which is pulling a number of nearby galaxies in its direction. Zoologist Dian Fossey worked with gorillas in Africa from 1967 until her murder in 1985. Astronomer Andrea Ghez received a MacArthur "genius grant" in 2008 for her work in surmounting the limitations of earthbound telescopes. Maria Goeppert Mayer was the second female Nobel Prize winner in Physics, for proposing the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus. Earlier in her career, she had worked in unofficial or volunteer positions at the university where her husband was a professor. Goeppert Mayer is one of several scientists whose works are commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp. Sulamith Low Goldhaber and her husband Gerson Goldhaber formed a research team on the K meson and other high-energy particles in the 1950s. Carol Greider and the Australian born
Elizabeth Blackburn Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, (born 26 November 1948) is an Australian-American Nobel laureate who is the former president of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Previously she was a biological researcher at the University of California, S ...
, along with Jack W. Szostak, received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase. Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper developed the first computer compiler while working for the Eckert Mauchly Computer Corporation, released in 1952. Deborah S. Jin's team at JILA, in Boulder, Colorado in 2003 produced the first fermionic condensate, a new state of matter. Stephanie Kwolek, a researcher at DuPont, invented poly-paraphenylene terephthalamide – better known as Kevlar. Lynn Margulis is a biologist best known for her work on endosymbiotic theory, which is now generally accepted for how certain organelles were formed. Barbara McClintock's studies of maize genetics demonstrated genetic Transposition (genetics), transposition in the 1940s and 1950s. Before then, McClintock obtained her PhD from Cornell University in 1927. Her discovery of transposition provided a greater understanding of mobile loci within chromosomes and the ability for genetics to be fluid.Dean, Donald S. “Barbara McClintock, Pioneer.” ''The American Biology Teacher'', vol. 46, no. 7, 1984, pp. 361–362. ''JSTOR'', www.jstor.org/stable/4447873. Accessed 18 Dec. 2020. She dedicated her life to her research, and she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983. McClintock was the first American woman to receive a Nobel Prize that was not shared by anyone else. McClintock is one of several scientists whose works are commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp. Nita Ahuja is a renowned surgeon-scientist known for her work on CIMP in cancer, she is currently the Chief of surgical oncology at Johns Hopkins Hospital. First woman ever to be the Chief of this prestigious department. Carolyn Porco is a planetary scientist best known for her work on the Voyager program and the ''Cassini–Huygens'' mission to Saturn. She is also known for her popularization of science, in particular space exploration. Physicist Helen Quinn, with Roberto Peccei, postulated Peccei-Quinn symmetry. One consequence is a particle known as the axion, a candidate for the dark matter that pervades the universe. Quinn was the first woman to receive the Dirac Medal and the first to receive the Oskar Klein Medal. Lisa Randall is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist, best known for her work on the Randall–Sundrum model. She was the first tenured female physics professor at Princeton University. Sally Ride was an astrophysicist and the first American woman, and then-youngest American, to travel to outer space. Ride wrote or co-wrote several books on space aimed at children, with the goal of encouraging them to study science. Ride participated in the Gravity Probe B (GP-B) project, which provided more evidence that the predictions of Albert Einstein's general theory of General relativity, relativity are correct. Through her observations of galaxy rotation curves, astronomer Vera Rubin discovered the Galaxy rotation problem, now taken to be one of the key pieces of evidence for the existence of dark matter. She was the first female allowed to observe at the Palomar Observatory. Sara Seager is a Canadian-American astronomer who is currently a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and known for her work on extrasolar planets. Astronomer Jill Tarter is best known for her work on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Tarter was named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time (magazine), ''Time Magazine'' in 2004. She is the former director of SETI. Rosalyn Yalow was the co-winner of the 1977 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (together with Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally) for development of the radioimmunoassay (RIA) technique.


Australia after World War II

* Amanda Barnard, an Australia-based theoretical physicist specializing in nanomaterials, winner of the Malcolm McIntosh Prize for Physical Scientist of the Year. * Isobel Bennett, was one of the first women to go to Macquarie Island with the Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions, ANARE). She is one of Australia's best known marine biologists. * Dorothy Hill, an Australian geologist who became the first female Professor at an Australian university. * Ruby Payne-Scott, was an Australian who was an early leader in the fields of radio astronomy and radiophysics. She was one of the first radio astronomers and the first woman in the field. * Penny Sackett, an astronomer who became the first female Chief Scientist of Australia in 2008. She is a US-born Australian citizen. * Fiona Stanley, winner of the 2003 Australian of the Year award, is an epidemiologist noted for her research into child and maternal health, birth disorders, and her work in the public health field. *Michelle Simmons, winner of the 2018 Australian of the Year award, is a quantum physicist known for her research and leadership on Atomic scale, atomic-scale silicon quantum devices.


Israel after World War II

*
Ada Yonath Ada E. Yonath ( he, עדה יונת, ; born 22 June 1939) is an Israeli crystallographer best known for her pioneering work on the structure of ribosomes. She is the current director of the Helen and Milton A. Kimmelman Center for Biomolecular ...
, the first woman from the Middle East to win a Nobel prize in the sciences, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2009 for her studies on the structure and function of the ribosome. Latin America Maria Nieves Garcia-Casal, the first scientist and nutritionist woman from Latin America to lead the Latin America Society of Nutrition. Angela Restrepo Moreno is a microbiologist from Colombia. She first gained interest in tiny organisms when she had the opportunity to view them through a microscope that belonged to her grandfather. While Restrepo has a variety of research, her main area of research is fungi and their causes of diseases. Her work led her to develop research on a disease caused by fungi that has only been diagnosed in Latin America but was originally found in Brazil: Paracoccidioidomycosis. Research groups also developed by Restrepo have begun studying two routes: the relationship between humans, fungi, and the environment and also how the cells within the fungi work. Along with her research, Restrepo co-founded a non-profit that is devoted to scientific research named Corporation for Biological Research (CIB). Angela Restrepo Moreno was awarded the SCOPUS Prize in 2007 for her numerous amounts of publications. She currently resides in Colombia and continues her research. Susana López Charretón was born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1957. She is a virologist whose area of study focused on the rotavirus. When she initially began studying rotavirus, it had only been discovered four years earlier. Charretón's main job was to study how the virus entered cells and its ways of multiplying. Because of her, and several others, work other scientists were able to learn about more details of the virus. Now, her research focuses on the virus's ability to recognize the cells it infects. Along with her husband, Charretón was awarded the Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology in 2001. She also received the Loreal-UNESCO prize titled "Woman in Science" in 2012. Charretón has also received several other awards for her research. Liliana Quintanar Vera is a Mexican chemist. Currently a researcher at the Department of Chemistry of the Center of Investigation and Advanced Studies, Vera's research currently focuses on neurodegenerative diseases like Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and prion disease and also on degenerative diseases like diabetes and cataracts. For this research she focused on how copper interacts with the proteins of the neurodegenerative diseases mentioned before. Liliana's awards include the Mexican Academy of Sciences Research Prize for Science in 2017, the Marcos Moshinsky Chair award in 2016, the Fulbright Scholarship in 2014, and the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Awards, L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Award in 2007.


Nobel laureates

The Nobel Prize and Prize in Economic Sciences have been awarded to women 49 times between 1901 and 2017. One woman, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, has been honored twice, with the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics and the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. This means that 48 women in total have been awarded the Nobel Prize between 1901 and 2010. 18 women have been awarded the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine.


Chemistry

* 2022 – Carolyn Bertozzi * 2020 – Emmanuelle Charpentier, Jennifer Doudna * 2018 – Frances Arnold * 2009 – Ada E. Yonath * 1964 – Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin * 1935 –
Irène Joliot-Curie Irène Joliot-Curie (; ; 12 September 1897 – 17 March 1956) was a French chemist, physicist and politician, the elder daughter of Pierre and Marie Curie, and the wife of Frédéric Joliot-Curie. Jointly with her husband, Joliot-Curie was award ...
* 1911 – Marie Curie, Marie Sklodowska-Curie


Physics

* 2018 – Donna Strickland * 1963 – Maria Goeppert-Mayer * 1903 – Marie Curie, Marie Sklodowska-Curie


Physiology or Medicine

* 2015 – Youyou Tu * 2014 – May-Britt Moser * 2009 – Elizabeth H. Blackburn * 2009 – Carol W. Greider * 2008 –
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (; born 30 July 1947) is a French virologist and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Division (french: Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales) and Professor at the in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sino ...
* 2004 – Linda B. Buck * 1995 – Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard * 1988 – Gertrude B. Elion * 1986 –
Rita Levi-Montalcini Rita Levi-Montalcini (, ; 22 April 1909 – 30 December 2012) was an Italian Nobel laureate, honored for her work in neurobiology. She was awarded the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with colleague Stanley Cohen for the ...
* 1983 – Barbara McClintock * 1977 – Rosalyn Yalow * 1947 –
Gerty Cori Gerty Theresa Cori (; August 15, 1896 – October 26, 1957) was an Austro-Hungarian and American biochemist who in 1947 was the third woman to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Me ...


Fields Medal

* Maryam Mirzakhani (12 May 1977 – 14 July 2017), the first and the only woman thus far to have won the prize, was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University.


Statistics

Statistics are used to indicate disadvantages faced by women in science, and also to track positive changes of employment opportunities and incomes for women in science.


Situation in the 1990s

Women appear to do less well than men (in terms of degree, rank, and salary) in the fields that have been traditionally dominated by women, such as
nursing Nursing is a profession within the health care sector focused on the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life. Nurses may be differentiated from other health ...
. In 1991 women attributed 91% of the PhDs in nursing, and men held 4% of full professorships in nursing. In the field of
psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...
, where women earn the majority of PhDs, women do not fill the majority of high rank positions in that field. Women's lower salaries in the scientific community are also reflected in statistics. According to the data provided in 1993, the median salaries of female scientists and engineers with doctoral degrees were 20% less than men. This data can be explained as there was less participation of women in high rank scientific fields/positions and a female majority in low-paid fields/positions. However, even with men and women in the same scientific community field, women are typically paid 15–17% less than men. In addition to the gender pay gap, gender gap, there were also salary differences between ethnicity: African-American women with more years of experiences earn 3.4% less than European-American women with similar skills, while Asian women engineers out-earn both Africans and Europeans. Women are also under-represented in the sciences as compared to their numbers in the overall working population. Within 11% of African-American women in the workforce, 3% are employed as scientists and engineers. Hispanics made up 8% of the total workers in the US, 3% of that number are scientists and engineers. Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Native Americans participation cannot be statistically measured. Women tend to earn less than men in almost all industries, including government and academia. Women are less likely to be hired in highest-paid positions. The data showing the differences in salaries, ranks, and overall success between the genders is often claimed to be a result of women's lack of professional experience. The rate of women's professional achievement is increasing. In 1996, the salaries for women in professional fields increased from 85% to 95% relative to men with similar skills and jobs. Young women between the age of 27 and 33 earned 98%, nearly as much as their male peers. In the total workforce of the United States, women earn 74% as much as their male counterparts (in the 1970s they made 59% as much as their male counterparts). Claudia Goldin, Harvard concludes in ''A Grand Gender Convergence: Its Last Chapter'' – "The gender gap in pay would be considerably reduced and might vanish altogether if firms did not have an incentive to disproportionately reward individuals who labored long hours and worked particular hours." Research on women's participation in the "hard" sciences such as physics and computer science speaks of the "leaky pipeline" model, in which the proportion of women "on track" to potentially becoming top scientists fall off at every step of the way, from getting interested in science and maths in elementary school, through doctorate, postdoctoral, and career steps. The leaky pipeline also applies in other fields. In biology, for instance, women in the United States have been getting Master's degree, Masters degrees in the same numbers as men for two decades, yet fewer women get PhDs; and the numbers of women principal investigators have not risen. What may be the cause of this "leaky pipeline" of women in the sciences? It is important to look at factors outside of academia that are occurring in women's lives at the same time they are pursuing their continued education and career search. The most outstanding factor that is occurring at this crucial time is family formation. As women are continuing their academic careers, they are also stepping into their new role as a wife and mother. These traditionally require at large time commitment and presence outside work. These new commitments do not fare well for the person looking to attain tenure. That is why women entering the family formation period of their life are 35% less likely to pursue tenure positions after receiving their PhD's than their male counterparts. In the UK, women occupied over half the places in science-related higher education courses (science, medicine, maths, computer science and engineering) in 2004–5. However, gender differences varied from subject to subject: women substantially outnumbered men in biology and
medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...
, especially nursing, while men predominated in maths, physical sciences, computer science and engineering. In the US, women with science or engineering doctoral degrees were predominantly employed in the education sector in 2001, with substantially fewer employed in business or industry than men.Hahm, J-o. Data on Women in S&E. From: Women, Minorities and Persons With Disabilities in Science and Engineering, NSF 2004
According to salary figures reported in 1991, women earn anywhere between 83.6 percent to 87.5 percent that of a man's salary. An even greater disparity between men and women is the ongoing trend that women scientists with more experience are not as well-compensated as their male counterparts. The salary of a male engineer continues to experience growth as he gains experience whereas the female engineer sees her salary reach a plateau. Women, in the United States and many European countries, who succeed in science tend to be graduates of single-sex schools. Women earn 54% of all bachelor's degrees in the United States and 50% of those are in science. 9% of US physicists are women.


Overview of situation in 2013

In 2013, women accounted for 53% of the world's graduates at the bachelor's and master's level and 43% of successful PhD candidates but just 28% of researchers. Women graduates are consistently highly represented in the life sciences, often at over 50%. However, their representation in the other fields is inconsistent. In North America and much of Europe, few women graduate in physics, mathematics and computer science but, in other regions, the proportion of women may be close to parity in physics or mathematics. In engineering and computer sciences, women consistently trail men, a situation that is particularly acute in many high-income countries.


In decision-making

As of 2015, each step up the ladder of the scientific research system saw a drop in female participation until, at the highest echelons of scientific research and decision-making, there were very few women left. In 2015, the EU Commissioner for Research, Science and Innovation Carlos Moedas called attention to this phenomenon, adding that the majority of entrepreneurs in science and engineering tended to be men. In 2013, the German government coalition agreement introduced a 30% quota for women on company boards of directors. In 2010, women made up 14% of university chancellors and vice-chancellors at Brazilian public universities and 17% of those in South Africa in 2011. As of 2015, in Argentina, women made up 16% of directors and vice-directors of national research centres and, in Mexico, 10% of directors of scientific research institutes at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. In the US, numbers are slightly higher at 23%. In the EU, less than 16% of tertiary institutions were headed by a woman in 2010 and just 10% of universities. In 2011, at the main tertiary institution for the English-speaking Caribbean, the University of the West Indies, women represented 51% of lecturers but only 32% of senior lecturers and 26% of full professors . A 2018 review of the Royal Society of Britain by historians Aileen Fyfe and Camilla Mørk Røstvik produced similarly low numbers, with women accounting for more than 25% of members in only a handful of countries, including Cuba, Panama and South Africa. As of 2015, the figure for Indonesia was 17%.


Women in life sciences

In life sciences, women researchers have achieved parity (45–55% of researchers) in many countries. In some, the balance even now tips in their favour. Six out of ten researchers are women in both medical and agricultural sciences in Belarus and New Zealand, for instance. More than two-thirds of researchers in medical sciences are women in El Salvador, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, the Philippines, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Venezuela. There has been a steady increase in female graduates in agricultural sciences since the turn of the century. In sub-Saharan Africa, for instance, numbers of female graduates in agricultural science have been increasing steadily, with eight countries reporting a share of women graduates of 40% or more: Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. The reasons for this surge are unclear, although one explanation may lie in the growing emphasis on national food security and the food industry. Another possible explanation is that women are highly represented in biotechnology. For example, in South Africa, women were underrepresented in engineering (16%) in 2004 and in 'natural scientific professions' (16%) in 2006 but made up 52% of employees working in biotechnology-related companies. Women play an increasing role in environmental sciences and conservation biology. In fact, women played a foremost role in the development of these disciplines. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson proved an important impetus to the conservation movement and the later banning of chemical pesticides. Women played an important role in conservation biology including the famous work of Dian Fossey, who published the famous Gorillas in the Mist and
Jane Goodall Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...
who studied primates in East Africa. Today women make up an increasing proportion of roles in the active conservation sector. A recent survey of those working in the Wildlife Trusts in the U.K., the leading conservation organisation in England, found that there are nearly as many women as men in practical conservation roles.


In engineering and related fields

Women are consistently underrepresented in engineering and related fields. In Israel, for instance, where 28% of senior academic staff are women, there are proportionately many fewer in engineering (14%), physical sciences (11%), mathematics and computer sciences (10%) but dominate education (52%) and paramedical occupations (63%). In Japan and the Republic of Korea, women represent just 5% and 10% of engineers. For women who are pursuing STEM major careers, these individuals often face gender disparities in the work field, especially in regards to science and engineering. It has become more common for women to pursue undergraduate degrees in science, but are continuously discredited in salary rates and higher ranking positions. For example, men show a greater likelihood of being selected for an employment position than a woman. In Europe and North America, the number of female graduates in engineering, physics, mathematics and computer science is generally low. Women make up just 19% of engineers in Canada, Germany and the US and 22% in Finland, for example. However, 50% of engineering graduates are women in Cyprus, 38% in Denmark and 36% in the Russian Federation, for instance. In many cases, engineering has lost ground to other sciences, including agriculture. The case of New Zealand is fairly typical. Here, women jumped from representing 39% to 70% of agricultural graduates between 2000 and 2012, continued to dominate health (80–78%) but ceded ground in science (43–39%) and engineering (33–27%). In a number of developing countries, there is a sizable proportion of women engineers. At least three out of ten engineers are women, for instance, in Costa Rica, Vietnam and the United Arab Emirates (31%), Algeria (32%), Mozambique (34%), Tunisia (41%) and Brunei Darussalam (42%). In Malaysia (50%) and Oman (53%), women are on a par with men. Of the 13 sub-Saharan countries reporting data, seven have observed substantial increases (more than 5%) in women engineers since 2000, namely: Benin, Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique and Namibia. Of the seven Arab countries reporting data, four observe a steady percentage or an increase in female engineers (Morocco, Oman, Palestine and Saudi Arabia). In the United Arab Emirates, the government has made it a priority to develop a knowledge economy, having recognized the need for a strong human resource base in science, technology and engineering. With just 1% of the labour force being Emirati, it is also concerned about the low percentage of Emirati citizens employed in key industries. As a result, it has introduced policies promoting the training and employment of Emirati citizens, as well as a greater participation of Emirati women in the labour force. Emirati female engineering students have said that they are attracted to a career in engineering for reasons of financial independence, the high social status associated with this field, the opportunity to engage in creative and challenging projects and the wide range of career opportunities. An analysis of computer science shows a steady decrease in female graduates since 2000 that is particularly marked in high-income countries. Between 2000 and 2012, the share of women graduates in computer science slipped in Australia, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea and USA. In Latin America and the Caribbean, the share of women graduates in computer science dropped by between 2 and 13 percentage points over this period for all countries reporting data. There are exceptions. In Denmark, the proportion of female graduates in computer science increased from 15% to 24% between 2000 and 2012 and Germany saw an increase from 10% to 17%. These are still very low levels. Figures are higher in many emerging economies. In Turkey, for instance, the proportion of women graduating in computer science rose from a relatively high 29% to 33% between 2000 and 2012. The Malaysian information technology (IT) sector is made up equally of women and men, with large numbers of women employed as university professors and in the private sector. This is a product of two historical trends: the predominance of women in the Malay electronics industry, the precursor to the IT industry, and the national push to achieve a 'pan-Malayan' culture beyond the three ethnic groups of Indian, Chinese and Malay. Government support for the education of all three groups is available on a quota basis and, since few Malay men are interested in IT, this leaves more room for women. Additionally, families tend to be supportive of their daughters' entry into this prestigious and highly remunerated industry, in the interests of upward social mobility. Malaysia's push to develop an Innovation in Malaysia, endogenous research culture should deepen this trend. In India, the substantial increase in women undergraduates in engineering may be indicative of a change in the 'masculine' perception of engineering in the country. It is also a product of interest on the part of parents, since their daughters will be assured of employment as the field expands, as well as an advantageous marriage. Other factors include the 'friendly' image of engineering in India and the easy access to engineering education resulting from the increase in the number of women's engineering colleges over the last two decades.


In space

While women have made huge strides in the STEM fields, it is obvious that they are still underrepresented. One of the areas where women are most underrepresented in science is space flight. Out of the 556 people who have traveled to space, only 65 of them were women. This means that only 11% of astronauts have been women. In the 1960s, the American space program was taking off. However, women were not allowed to be considered for the space program because at the time astronauts were required to be military pilots—a profession that women were not allowed to be a part of. There were other "practical" reasons as well. According to General Don Flickinger of the United States Air Force, there was difficulty "designing and fitting a space suit to accommodate their particular biological needs and functions." During the early 1960s, the first American astronauts, nicknamed the Mercury Seven, were training. At the same time, William Randolph Lovelace II was interested to see if women could manage to go through the same training that the Mercury 7 undergoing at the time. Lovelace recruited thirteen female pilots, called the "Mercury 13", and put them through the same tests that the male astronauts took. As a result, the women actually performed better on these tests than the men of the Mercury 7 did. However, this did not convince NASA officials to allow women in space. In response, congressional hearings were held to investigate discrimination against women in the program. One of the women who testified at the hearing was Jerrie Cobb, the first woman to pass Lovelace's tests. During her testimony, Cobb said:
I find it a little ridiculous when I read in a newspaper that there is a place called Ham (chimpanzee), Chimp College in New Mexico where they are training chimpanzees for space flight, one a female named Glenda. I think it would be at least as important to let the women undergo this training for space flight.
NASA officials also had representatives present, notably astronauts John Glenn and Scott Carpenter, to testify that women are not suited for the space program. Ultimately, no action came from the hearings, and NASA did not put a woman in space until 1983. Even though the United States did not allow women in space during the 60s or 70s, other countries did. Valentina Tereshkova, a cosmonaut from the Soviet Union, was the first woman to fly in space. Although she had no piloting experience, she flew on the Vostok 6 in 1963. Before going to space, Tereshkova was a textile worker. Although she successfully orbited the earth forty-eight times, the next woman to go to space did not fly until almost twenty years later. Sally Ride was the third woman to go to space and the first American woman in space. In 1978, Ride and five other women were accepted into the first class of astronauts that allowed women. In 1983, Ride became the first American woman in space when she flew on the ''Challenger'' for the STS-7 mission. NASA has been more inclusive in recent years. The number of women in NASA's astronaut classes has steadily risen since the first class that allowed women in 1978. The most recent class was 45% women, and the class before was 50%. In 2019, the first all-female spacewalk was completed at the International Space Station.


Regional trends as of 2013

The global figures mask wide disparities from one region to another. In Southeast Europe, for instance, women researchers have obtained parity and, at 44%, are on the verge of doing so in Central Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. In the European Union, on the other hand, just one in three (33%) researchers is a woman, compared to 37% in the Arab world. Women are also better represented in sub-Saharan Africa (30%) than in South Asia (17%). There are also wide intraregional disparities. Women make up 52% of researchers in the Philippines and Thailand, for instance, and are close to parity in Malaysia and Vietnam, yet only one in three researchers is a woman in Indonesia and Singapore. In Japan and the Republic of Korea, two countries characterized by high researcher densities and technological sophistication, as few as 15% and 18% of researchers respectively are women. These are the lowest ratios among members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The Republic of Korea also has the widest gap among OECD members in remuneration between men and women researchers (39%). There is also a yawning gap in Japan (29%).


Latin America and the Caribbean

Latin America has some of the world's highest rates of women studying scientific fields; it also shares with the Caribbean one of the highest proportions of female researchers: 44%. Of the 12 countries reporting data for the years 2010–2013, seven have achieved gender parity, or even dominate research: Bolivia (63%), Venezuela (56%), Argentina (53%), Paraguay (52%), Uruguay (49%), Brazil (48%) and Guatemala (45%). Costa Rica is on the cusp (43%). Chile has the lowest score among countries for which there are recent data (31%). The Caribbean paints a similar picture, with Cuba having achieved gender parity (47%) and Trinidad and Tobago on 44%. Recent data on women's participation in industrial research are available for those countries with the most developed national innovation systems, with the exception of Brazil and Cuba: Uruguay (47%), Argentina (29%), Colombia and Chile (26%). As in most other regions, the great majority of health graduates are women (60–85%). Women are also strongly represented in science. More than 40% of science graduates are women in each of Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama and Uruguay. The Caribbean paints a similar picture, with women graduates in science being on a par with men or dominating this field in Barbados, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Trinidad and Tobago. In engineering, women make up over 30% of the graduate population in seven Latin American countries (Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and Uruguay) and one Caribbean country, the Dominican Republic. There has been a decrease in the number of women engineering graduates in Argentina, Chile and Honduras. The participation of women in science has consistently dropped since the turn of the century. This trend has been observed in all sectors of the larger economies: Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Colombia. Mexico is a notable exception, having recorded a slight increase. Some of the decrease may be attributed to women transferring to agricultural sciences in these countries. Another negative trend is the drop in female doctoral students and in the labour force. Of those countries reporting data, the majority signal a significant drop of 10–20 percentage points in the transition from master's to doctoral graduates.


Eastern Europe, West and Central Asia

Most countries in Eastern Europe, West and Central Asia have attained gender parity in research (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia (country), Georgia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and Ukraine) or are on the brink of doing so (Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan). This trend is reflected in tertiary education, with some exceptions in engineering and computer science. Although Belarus and the Russian Federation have seen a drop over the past decade, women still represented 41% of researchers in 2013. In the former Soviet states, women are also very present in the business enterprise sector: Bosnia and Herzegovina (59%), Azerbaijan (57%), Kazakhstan (50%), Mongolia (48%), Latvia (48%), Serbia (46%), Croatia and Bulgaria (43%), Ukraine and Uzbekistan (40%), Romania and Montenegro (38%), Belarus (37%), Russian Federation (37%). One in three researchers is a woman in Turkey (36%) and Tajikistan (34%). Participation rates are lower in Iran (26%) and Israel (21%), although Israeli women represent 28% of senior academic staff. At university, Israeli women dominate medical sciences (63%) but only a minority study engineering (14%), physical sciences (11%), mathematics and computer science (10%). There has been an interesting evolution in Iran. Whereas the share of female PhD graduates in health remained stable at 38–39% between 2007 and 2012, it rose in all three other broad fields. Most spectacular was the leap in female PhD graduates in agricultural sciences from 4% to 33% but there was also a marked progression in science (from 28% to 39%) and engineering (from 8% to 16%).


Southeast Europe

With the exception of Greece, all the countries of Southeast Europe were once part of the Soviet bloc. Some 49% of researchers in these countries are women (compared to 37% in Greece in 2011). This high proportion is considered a legacy of the consistent investment in education by the Socialist governments in place until the early 1990s, including that of the former Yugoslavia. Moreover, the participation of female researchers is holding steady or increasing in much of the region, with representation broadly even across the four sectors of government, business, higher education and non-profit. In most countries, women tend to be on a par with men among tertiary graduates in science. Between 70% and 85% of graduates are women in health, less than 40% in agriculture and between 20% and 30% in engineering. Albania has seen a considerable increase in the share of its women graduates in engineering and agriculture.


European Union

Women make up 33% of researchers overall in the European Union (EU), slightly more than their representation in science (32%). Women constitute 40% of researchers in higher education, 40% in government and 19% in the private sector, with the number of female researchers increasing faster than that of male researchers. The proportion of female researchers has been increasing over the last decade, at a faster rate than men (5.1% annually over 2002–2009 compared with 3.3% for men), which is also true for their participation among scientists and engineers (up 5.4% annually between 2002 and 2010, compared with 3.1% for men). Despite these gains, women's academic careers in Europe remain characterized by strong vertical and horizontal segregation. In 2010, although female students (55%) and graduates (59%) outnumbered male students, men outnumbered women at the PhD and graduate levels (albeit by a small margin). Further along in the research career, women represented 44% of grade C academic staff, 37% of grade B academic staff and 20% of grade A academic staff.11 These trends are intensified in science, with women making up 31% of the student population at the tertiary level to 38% of PhD students and 35% of PhD graduates. At the faculty level, they make up 32% of academic grade C personnel, 23% of grade B and 11% of grade A. The proportion of women among full professors is lowest in engineering and technology, at 7.9%. With respect to representation in science decision-making, in 2010 15.5% of higher education institutions were headed by women and 10% of universities had a female rector. Membership on science boards remained predominantly male as well, with women making up 36% of board members. The EU has engaged in a major effort to integrate female researchers and gender research into its research and innovation strategy since the mid-2000s. Increases in women's representation in all of the scientific fields overall indicates that this effort has met with some success; however, the continued lack of representation of women at the top level of faculties, management and science decision making indicate that more work needs to be done. The EU is addressing this through a gender equality strategy and crosscutting mandate in Horizon 2020, its research and innovation funding programme for 2014–2020.


Australia, New Zealand and USA

In 2013, women made up the majority of PhD graduates in fields related to health in Australia (63%), New Zealand (58%) and the United States of America (73%). The same can be said of agriculture, in New Zealand's case (73%). Women have also achieved parity in agriculture in Australia (50%) and the United States (44%). Just one in five women graduate in engineering in the latter two countries, a situation that has not changed over the past decade. In New Zealand, women jumped from constituting 39% to 70% of agricultural graduates (all levels) between 2000 and 2012 but ceded ground in science (43–39%), engineering (33–27%) and health (80–78%). As for Canada, it has not reported sex-disaggregated data for women graduates in science and engineering in recent years. Moreover, none of the four countries mentioned here have reported recent data on the share of female researchers.


South Asia

South Asia is the region where women make up the smallest proportion of researchers: 17%. This is 13 percentage points below sub-Saharan Africa. Of those countries in South Asia reporting data for 2009–2013, Nepal has the lowest representation of all (in head counts), at 8% (2010), a substantial drop from 15% in 2002. In 2013, only 14% of researchers (in full-time equivalents) were women in the region's most populous country, India, down slightly from 15% in 2009. The percentage of female researchers is highest in Sri Lanka (39%), followed by Pakistan: 24% in 2009, 31% in 2013. There are no recent data available for Afghanistan or Bangladesh. Women are most present in the private non-profit sector – they make up 60% of employees in Sri Lanka – followed by the academic sector: 30% of Pakistani and 42% of Sri Lankan female researchers. Women tend to be less present in the government sector and least likely to be employed in the business sector, accounting for 23% of employees in Sri Lanka, 11% in India and just 5% in Nepal. Women have achieved parity in science in both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh but are less likely to undertake research in engineering. They represent 17% of the research pool in Bangladesh and 29% in Sri Lanka. Many Sri Lankan women have followed the global trend of opting for a career in agricultural sciences (54%) and they have also achieved parity in health and welfare. In Bangladesh, just over 30% choose agricultural sciences and health, which goes against the global trend. Although Bangladesh still has progress to make, the share of women in each scientific field has increased steadily over the past decade.


Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia presents a different picture entirely, with women basically on a par with men in some countries: they make up 52% of researchers in the Philippines and Thailand, for example. Other countries are close to parity, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, whereas Indonesia and Singapore are still around the 30% mark. Cambodia trails its neighbours at 20%. Female researchers in the region are spread fairly equally across the sectors of participation, with the exception of the private sector, where they make up 30% or less of researchers in most countries. The proportion of women tertiary graduates reflects these trends, with high percentages of women in science in Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Philippines (around 60%) and a low of 10% in Cambodia. Women make up the majority of graduates in health sciences, from 60% in Laos to 81% in Myanmar – Vietnam being an exception at 42%. Women graduates are on a par with men in agriculture but less present in engineering: Vietnam (31%), the Philippines (30%) and Malaysia (39%); here, the exception is Myanmar, at 65%. In the Republic of Korea, women make up about 40% of graduates in science and agriculture and 71% of graduates in health sciences but only 18% of female researchers overall. This represents a loss in the investment made in educating girls and women up through tertiary education, a result of traditional views of women's role in society and in the home. Kim and Moon (2011) remark on the tendency of Korean women to withdraw from the labour force to take care of children and assume family responsibilities, calling it a 'domestic brain drain'. Women remain very much a minority in Japanese science (15% in 2013), although the situation has improved slightly (13% in 2008) since the government fixed a target in 2006 of raising the ratio of female researchers to 25%. Calculated on the basis of the current number of doctoral students, the government hopes to obtain a 20% share of women in science, 15% in engineering and 30% in agriculture and health by the end of the current ''Basic Plan for Science and Technology'' in 2016. In 2013, Japanese female researchers were most common in the public sector in health and agriculture, where they represented 29% of academics and 20% of government researchers. In the business sector, just 8% of researchers were women (in head counts), compared to 25% in the academic sector. In other public research institutions, women accounted for 16% of researchers. One of the main thrusts of Abenomics, Japan's current growth strategy, is to enhance the socio-economic role of women. Consequently, the selection criteria for most large university grants now take into account the proportion of women among teaching staff and researchers. The low ratio of women researchers in Japan and the Republic of Korea, which both have some of the highest researcher densities in the world, brings down Southeast Asia's average to 22.5% for the share of women among researchers in the region.


Arab States

At 37%, the share of female researchers in the Arab States compares well with other regions. The countries with the highest proportion of female researchers are Bahrain and Sudan at around 40%. Jordan, Libya, Oman, Palestine and Qatar have percentage shares in the low twenties. The country with the lowest participation of female researchers is Saudi Arabia, even though they make up the majority of tertiary graduates, but the figure of 1.4% covers only the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology. Female researchers in the region are primarily employed in government research institutes, with some countries also seeing a high participation of women in private nonprofit organizations and universities. With the exception of Sudan (40%) and Palestine (35%), fewer than one in four researchers in the business enterprise sector is a woman; for half of the countries reporting data, there are barely any women at all employed in this sector. Despite these variable numbers, the percentage of female tertiary-level graduates in science and engineering is very high across the region, which indicates there is a substantial drop between graduation and employment and research. Women make up half or more than half of science graduates in all but Sudan and over 45% in agriculture in eight out of the 15 countries reporting data, namely Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates. In engineering, women make up over 70% of graduates in Oman, with rates of 25–38% in the majority of the other countries, which is high in comparison to other regions. The participation of women is somewhat lower in health than in other regions, possibly on account of cultural norms restricting interactions between males and females. Iraq and Oman have the lowest percentages (mid-30s), whereas Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Palestine and Saudi Arabia are at gender parity in this field. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have the highest rates of all: 83% and 84%. Once Arab women scientists and engineers graduate, they may come up against barriers to finding gainful employment. These include a misalignment between university programmes and labour market demand – a phenomenon which also affects men –, a lack of awareness about what a career in their chosen field entails, family bias against working in mixed-gender environments and a lack of female role models. One of the countries with the smallest female labour force is developing technical and vocational education for girls as part of a wider scheme to reduce dependence on foreign labour. By 2017, the Technical and Vocational Training Corporation of Saudi Arabia is to have constructed 50 technical colleges, 50 girls' higher technical institutes and 180 industrial secondary institutes. The plan is to create training placements for about 500 000 students, half of them girls. Boys and girls will be trained in vocational professions that include information technology, medical equipment handling, plumbing, electricity and mechanics.


Sub-Saharan Africa

Just under one in three (30%) researchers in sub-Saharan Africa is a woman. Much of sub-Saharan Africa is seeing solid gains in the share of women among tertiary graduates in scientific fields. In two of the top four countries for women's representation in science, women graduates are part of very small cohorts, however: they make up 54% of Lesotho's 47 tertiary graduates in science and 60% of those in Namibia's graduating class of 149. South Africa and Zimbabwe, which have larger graduate populations in science, have achieved parity, with 49% and 47% respectively. The next grouping clusters seven countries poised at around 35–40% (Angola, Burundi, Eritrea, Liberia, Madagascar, Mozambique and Rwanda). The rest are grouped around 30% or below (Benin, Ethiopia, Ghana, Swaziland and Uganda). Burkina Faso ranks lowest, with women making up 18% of its science graduates. Female representation in engineering is fairly high in sub-Saharan Africa in comparison with other regions. In Mozambique and South Africa, for instance, women make up more than 34% and 28% of engineering graduates, respectively. Numbers of female graduates in agricultural science have been increasing steadily across the continent, with eight countries reporting the share of women graduates of 40% or more (Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe). In health, this rate ranges from 26% and 27% in Benin and Eritrea to 94% in Namibia. Of note is that women account for a relatively high proportion of researchers employed in the business enterprise sector in South Africa (35%), Kenya (34%), Science and technology in Botswana, Botswana and Namibia (33%) and Zambia (31%). Female participation in industrial research is lower in Uganda (21%), Ethiopia (15%) and Mali (12%).


Lack of agency and representation


Social pressures to both conform to femininity and which punish femininity

Beginning in the twentieth century to present day, more and more women are becoming acknowledged for their work in science. However, women often find themselves at odds with expectations held towards them in relation to their scientific studies. For example, in 1968 James Watson questioned scientist Rosalind Franklin's place in the industry. He claimed that "the best place for a feminist was in another person's lab", most often a male's research lab. Women were and still are often critiqued of their overall presentation. In Franklin's situation, she was seen as lacking femininity for she failed to wear lipstick or revealing clothing. Since on average most of a woman's colleagues in science are men who do not see her as a true social peer, she will also find herself left out of opportunities to discuss possible research opportunities outside of the laboratory. In Londa Schiebinger's book, ''Has Feminism Changed Science?'', she mentions that men would have discussed their research outside of the lab, but this conversation is preceded by culturally "masculine" small-talk topics that, whether intentionally or not, excluded women influenced by their culture's feminine gender role from the conversation. Consequently, this act of excluding many women from the after-hours work discussions produced a more separate work environment between the men and the women in science; as women then would converse with other women in science about their current findings and theories. Ultimately, the women's work was devalued as a male scientist was not involved in the overall research and analysis. According to Oxford University Press, the inequality toward women is "endorsed within cultures and entrenched within institutions [that] hold power to reproduce that inequality". There are various gendered barriers in social networks that prevent women from working in male-dominated fields and top management jobs. Social networks are based on the cultural beliefs such as schemas and stereotypes. According to social psychology studies, top management jobs are more likely to have incumbent schemas that favor "an achievement-oriented aggressiveness and emotional toughness that is distinctly male in character". Gender stereotypes of feminine style set by men assume women to be conforming and submissive to male culture creating a sense of unqualified women for top management jobs. However, when the women try to prove their competence and power, they often faced obstacles. They are likely to be seen as dislikable and untrustworthy even when they excel at "masculine" tasks. In addition, women's achievements are likely to be dismissed or discredited. These "untrustworthy, dislikable women" could have very well been denied achievement from the fear men held of a woman overtaking his management position. Social networks and gender stereotypes produce many injustices that women have to experience in their workplace, as well as, the various obstacles they encounter when trying to advance in male-dominated and top management jobs. Women in professions like science, technology, and other related industries are likely to encounter these gendered barriers in their careers. Based on the meritocratic explanations of gender inequality, "as long as the people accept the mechanisms that produce unequal outcomes", all the outcomes will be legitimated in the society. When women try to deny the stereotypes and the discriminations by becoming "competent, integrated, well-liked", the society is more likely to look at these impressions as selfishness or "being a whiner". However, there have been positive attempts to reduce gender discrimination in the public domain. For example, in the United States, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 provides opportunities for women to achieve to a wide range of education programs and activities by prohibiting sex discrimination. The law states "No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subject to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." Although, even with laws prohibiting gender discrimination, society and social institutions continue to minimize women's competencies and accomplishments, especially, in the workforce by dismissing or discrediting their achievements as stated above.


Underrepresentation of homosexual and bi women, and gender nonconformists in STEM

While there has been a push to encourage more women to participate in science, there is less outreach to lesbian, bi, or gender nonconforming women, and gender nonconforming people more broadly. Due to the lack of data and statistics of LGBTQ members involvement in the STEM field, it is unknown to what exact degree lesbian and bisexual women, gender non-conformers (transgender, nonbinary/agender, or anti-gender gender abolitionists who eschew the system altogether) are potentially even more repressed and underrepresented than their straight peers. But a general lack of out lesbian and bi women in STEM has been noted. Reasons for under-representation of same-sex attracted women and anyone gender nonconforming in STEM fields include lack of role models in K–12, the desire of some transgender girls and women to adopt traditional heteronormative gender roles as gender is a cultural performance and socially-determined subjective internal experience, employment discrimination, and the possibility of sexual harassment in the workplace. Historically, women who have accepted STEM research positions for the government or the military remained in the closet due to lack of federal protections or the fact that homosexual or gender nonconforming expression was criminalized in their country. A notable example is Sally Ride, a physicist, the first American female astronaut, and a lesbian. Sally Ride chose not to reveal her sexuality until after her death in 2012; she purposefully revealed her sexual orientation in her obituary. She has been known as the first female (and youngest) American to enter space, as well as, starting her own company, Sally Ride Science, that encourages young girls to enter the STEM field. She chose to keep her sexuality to herself because she was familiar with "the male-dominated" NASA's anti-homosexual policies at the time of her space travel. Sally Ride's legacy continues as her company is still working to increase young girls and women's participation in the STEM fields. In a nationwide study of LGBTQA employees in STEM fields in the United States, same-sex attracted and gender nonconforming women in engineering, earth sciences, and mathematics reported that they were less likely to be out in the workplace. In general, LGBTQA people in this survey reported that, when more female or feminine gender role-identified people worked in their labs, the more accepting and safe the work environment. In another study of over 30,000 LGBT employees in STEM-related federal agencies in the United States, queer women in these agencies reported feeling isolated in the workplace and having to work harder than their gender conforming male colleagues. This isolation and overachievement remained constant as they earned supervisory positions and worked their way up the ladder. Gender nonconforming people in physics, particularly those identified as trans women in physics programs and labs, felt the most isolated and perceived the most hostility. Organizations such as Lesbians Who Tech, National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP), Out in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, Out in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (OSTEM), Pride in STEM, and House of STEM currently provide networking and mentoring opportunities for lesbian girls and women and LGBT people interested in or currently working in STEM fields. These organizations also advocate for the rights of lesbian and bi women and gender nonconformists in STEM in education and the workplace.


Reasons for disadvantages

Margaret Rossiter Margaret W. Rossiter (born July 1944) is an American historian of science, and Marie Underhill Noll Professor of the History of Science, at Cornell University. Rossiter coined the term Matilda effect for the systematic suppression of information ...
, an American historian of science, offered three concepts to explain the reasons behind the data in statistics and how these reasons disadvantaged women in the science industry. The first concept is hierarchical segregation. This is a well-known phenomenon in society, that the higher the level and rank of power and prestige, the smaller the population of females participating. The hierarchical differences point out that there are fewer women participating at higher levels of both academia and industry. Based on data collected in 1982, women earn 54 percent of all bachelor's degrees in the United States, with 50 percent of these in science. The source also indicated that this number increased almost every year. There are fewer women at the graduate level; they earn 40 percent of all doctorates, with 31 percent of these in science and engineering. The second concept included in Rossiter's explanation of women in science is Gender segregation, territorial segregation. The term refers to how female employment is often clustered in specific industries or categories in industries. Women stayed at home or took employment in feminine fields while men left the home to work. Although nearly half of the civilian work force is female, women still comprise the majority of low-paid jobs or jobs that society considered feminine. Statistics show that 60 percent of white professional women are nurses, daycare workers, or schoolteachers. Territorial disparities in science are often found between the 1920s and 1930s, when different fields in science were divided between men and women. Men dominated the chemistry, physics, and engineering, while women dominated the fields of botany, zoology, and psychology. The fields in which the majority of women are concentrated are known as the "soft" sciences and tend to have relatively low salaries. Researchers collected the data on many differences between women and men in science. Rossiter found that in 1966, thirty-eight percent of female scientists held master's degrees compared to twenty-six percent of male scientists; but large proportions of female scientists were in environmental and nonprofit organizations.The Gender and Science Reader, edited by Muriel Lederman And Ingrid Bartsch, section one, Eisenhart and Elizabeth Finkel, 2001, first published by Routledge. During the late 1960s and 1970s, equal-rights legislation made the number of female scientists rise dramatically. The statistics from National Science Board (NSB) present the change at that time. The number of science degrees awarded to woman rose from seven percent in 1970 to twenty-four percent in 1985. In 1975 only 385 women received bachelor's degrees in engineering compared to 11,000 women in 1985, indicating the importance of legislation to the representation of women in science. Elizabeth Finkel claims that even if the number of women participating in scientific fields increases, the opportunities are still limited. Jabos, who worked for NSB, reported the pattern of women in receiving doctoral degrees in science: even though the numbers of female scientists with higher-level degrees increased, they still were consistently in a minority. Another researcher, Harriet Zuckerman, claims that when woman and man have similar abilities for a job, the probability of the woman getting the job is lower. Elizabeth Finkel agrees, saying, "In general, while woman and men seem to be completing doctorate with similar credentials and experience, the opposition and rewards they find are not comparable. Women tend to be treated with less salary and status, many policy makers notice this phenomenon and try to rectify the unfair situation for women participating in scientific fields."


Societal disadvantages

Despite women's tendency to perform better than men academically, there are flaws involving stereotyping, lack of information, and family influence that have been found to affect women's involvement in science. Stereotyping has an effect, because people associate characteristics such as nurturing, kind, and warm or characteristics like strong and powerful with a particular gender. These character associations lead people to stereotype that certain jobs are more suitable to a particular gender. Lack of information is something that many institutions have worked hard over the years to improve by making programs such as the IFAC project (Information for a choice: empowering women through learning for scientific and technological career paths) which investigated low women participation in science and technology fields at high school to university level. However, not all efforts were as successful, "Science: it's a girl thing" campaign, which has since been removed, received backlash for further encouraging women that they must partake in "girly" or "feminine" activities. The idea being that if women are fully informed of their career choices and employability, they will be more inclined to pursue STEM field jobs. Women also struggle in the sense of lacking role models of women in science. Family influence is dependent on education level, economic status, and belief system. Education level of a student's parent matters, because oftentimes people who have higher education have a different opinion on education's importance than someone that does not. A parent can also be an influence in the sense that they want their children to follow in their footsteps and pursue a similar occupation, especially in women, it's been found that the mother's line of work tends to correlate with their daughters. Economic status can influence what kind of higher education a student might get. Economic status may influence their education depending on whether they are a work bound student or a college bound student. A work bound student may choose a shorter career path to quickly begin making money or due to lack of time. The belief system of a household can also have a big impact on women depending on their family's religious or cultural viewpoints. There are still some countries that have certain regulations on women's occupation, clothing, and curfew that limit career choices for women. Parental influence is also relevant because people tend to want to fulfill what they could not have as a child. Unfortunately, women are at such a disadvantage because not only must they overcome societal norms but then they also have to outperform men for the same recognition, studies show.


Contemporary advocacy and developments


Efforts to increase participation

A number of organizations have been set up to combat the stereotyping that may encourage girls away from careers in these areas. In the UK The WISE Campaign (Women into Science, Engineering and Construction) and the UKRC (The UK Resource Centre for Women in SET) are collaborating to ensure industry, academia and education are all aware of the importance of challenging the traditional approaches to careers advice and recruitment that mean some of the best brains in the country are lost to science. The UKRC and other women's networks provide female role models, resources and support for activities that promote science to girls and women. The Women's Engineering Society, a professional association in the UK, has been supporting women in engineering and science since 1919. In computing, the British Computer Society group BCSWomen is active in encouraging girls to consider computing careers, and in supporting women in the computing workforce. In the United States, the Association for Women in Science is one of the most prominent organization for professional women in science. In 2011, the Scientista Foundation was created to empower pre-professional college and graduate women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), to stay in the career track. There are also several organizations focused on increasing mentorship from a younger age. One of the best known groups is Science Club for Girls, which pairs undergraduate mentors with high school and middle school mentees. The model of that pairs undergraduate college mentors with younger students is quite popular. In addition, many young women are creating programs to boost participation in STEM at a younger level, either through conferences or competitions. In efforts to make women scientists more visible to the general public, the Grolier Club in New York City, New York hosted a "landmark exhibition" titled "Extraordinary Women in Science & Medicine: Four Centuries of Achievement", showcasing the lives and works of 32 women scientists in 2003. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) developed a video series highlighting the stories of female researchers at NIOSH. Each of the women featured in the videos share their journey into science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM), and offers encouragement to aspiring scientists. NIOSH also partners with external organizations in efforts to introduce individuals to scientific disciplines and funds several science-based training programs across the country.


In the media

In 2013, journalist Christie Aschwanden noted that a type of media coverage of women scientists that "treats its subject's sex as her most defining detail" was still prevalent. She proposed a checklist, the "Finkbeiner test", to help avoid this approach. It was cited in the coverage of a much-criticized 2013 ''New York Times'' obituary of rocket scientist Yvonne Brill that began with the words: "She made a mean beef stroganoff". Women are often poorly portrayal of women scientists in film, portrayed in film. The misrepresentation of women scientists in film, television and books can influence children to engage in gender stereotyping. This was seen in a 2007 meta-analysis conducted by Jocelyn Steinke and colleagues from Western Michigan University where, after engaging elementary school students in a Draw-a-Scientist Test, Draw-a-Scientist-Test, out of 4,000 participants only 28 girls drew female scientists.


Notable controversies and developments

A study conducted at Lund University in 2010 and 2011 analysed the genders of invited contributors to ''News & Views'' in ''Nature (journal), Nature'' and ''Perspectives'' in ''Science (journal), Science''. It found that 3.8% of the Earth and environmental science contributions to ''News & Views'' were written by women even while the field was estimated to be 16–20% female in the United States. ''Nature'' responded by suggesting that, worldwide, a significantly lower number of Earth scientists were women, but nevertheless committed to address any disparity. In 2012, a journal article published in ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' (PNAS) reported a gender bias among science faculty. Faculty were asked to review a resume from a hypothetical student and report how likely they would be to hire or mentor that student, as well as what they would offer as starting salary. Two resumes were distributed randomly to the faculty, only differing in the names at the top of the resume (John or Jennifer). The male student was rated as significantly more competent, more likely to be hired, and more likely to be mentored. The median starting salary offered to the male student was greater than $3,000 over the starting salary offered to the female student. Both male and female faculty exhibited this gender bias. This study suggests bias may partly explain the persistent deficit in the number of women at the highest levels of scientific fields. Another study reported that men are favored in some domains, such as biology tenure rates, but that the majority of domains were gender-fair; the authors interpreted this to suggest that the under-representation of women in the professorial ranks was not solely caused by sexist hiring, promotion, and remuneration. In April 2015 Williams and Ceci published a set of five national experiments showing that hypothetical female applicants were favored by faculty for assistant professorships over identically qualified men by a ratio of 2 to 1. In 2014, a Shirtstorm, controversy over the depiction of pinup women on Rosetta (spacecraft), Rosetta project scientist Matt Taylor's shirt during a press conference raised questions of sexism within the European Space Agency. The shirt, which featured cartoon women with firearms, led to an outpouring of criticism and an apology after which Taylor "broke down in tears." In 2015, stereotypes about women in science were directed at Fiona Ingleby, research fellow in evolution, behavior, and environment at the University of Sussex, and Megan Head, postdoctoral researcher at the Australian National University, when they submitted a paper analyzing the progression of PhD graduates to postdoctoral positions in the life sciences to the journal ''PLOS ONE''.Else, Holly
″'Sexist' peer review causes storm online.″
''Times Higher Education'' 30 April 2015..
The authors received an email on 27 March informing them that their paper had been rejected due to its poor quality. The email included comments from an anonymous reviewer, which included the suggestion that male authors be added in order to improve the quality of the science and serve as a means of ensuring that incorrect interpretations of the data are not included. Ingleby posted excerpts from the email on Twitter on 29 April bringing the incident to the attention of the public and media. The editor was dismissed from the journal and the reviewer was removed from the list of potential reviewers. A spokesman from PLOS apologized to the authors and said they would be given the opportunity to have the paper reviewed again. On 9 June 2015, Nobel prize winning biochemist Tim Hunt spoke at the World Conference of Science Journalists in Seoul. Prior to applauding the work of women scientists, he described emotional tension, saying "you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry." Initially, his Sir Tim Hunt controversy at WCSJ, remarks were widely condemned and he was forced to resign from his position at University College London. However, multiple conference attendees gave accounts, including a partial transcript and a partial recording, maintaining that his comments were understood to be satirical before being taken out of context by the media. In 2016 an article published in ''JAMA Dermatology'' reported a significant and dramatic downward trend in the number of NIH-funded woman investigators in the field of dermatology and that the gender gap between male and female NIH-funded dermatology investigators was widening. The article concluded that this disparity was likely due to a lack of institutional support for women investigators.


Problematic public statements

In January 2005, Harvard University President Lawrence Summers sparked controversy at a National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce. Dr. Summers offered his explanation for the shortage of women in senior posts in science and engineering. He made comments suggesting the lower numbers of women in high-level science positions may in part be due to innate differences in abilities or preferences between men and women. Making references to the field and behavioral genetics, he noted the generally greater variability among men (compared to women) on tests of cognitive abilities, leading to proportionally more men than women at both the lower and upper tails of the test score distributions. In his discussion of this, Summers said that "even small differences in the standard deviation [between genders] will translate into very large differences in the available pool substantially out [from the mean]".Archive of: Remarks at NBER Conference on Diversifying the Science & Engineering Workforce
14 January 2005.
Summers concluded his discussion by saying:
So my best guess, to provoke you, of what's behind all of this is that the largest phenomenon, by far, is the general clash between people's legitimate family desires and employers' current desire for high power and high intensity, that in the special case of science and engineering, there are issues of intrinsic aptitude, and particularly of the variability of aptitude, and that those considerations are reinforced by what are in fact lesser factors involving socialization and continuing discrimination.
Despite his protégée, Sheryl Sandberg, defending Summers' actions and Summers offering his own apology repeatedly, the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences passed a motion of "lack of confidence" in the leadership of Summers who had allowed tenure offers to women plummet after taking office in 2001. The year before he became president, Harvard extended 13 of its 36 tenure offers to women and by 2004 those numbers had dropped to 4 of 32 with several departments lacking even a single tenured female professor. This controversy is speculated to have significantly contributed to Summers resignation from his position at Harvard the following year.


See also

* African American women in computer science * History of science * International Day of Women and Girls in Science * List of inventions and discoveries by women * Index of women scientists articles * List of female scientists before the 20th century * List of female scientists in the 20th century * List of female scientists in the 21st century * List of female mathematicians * List of female Nobel laureates * Logology (science of science)#Sexual bias, Logology (science of science) (sexual bias) * Matilda effect * List of organizations for women in science, Organizations for women in science * List of prizes, medals, and awards for women in science, Prizes, medals, and awards for women in science * Margaret W. Rossiter * Timeline of women in science * Timeline of women in science in the United States * Women in archaeology * Women in computing * Women in engineering * Women in geology * Women in chemistry * Women in medicine * Women in STEM fields * Women in the workforce * Women in climate change * Working Group on Women in Physics


References


Sources

*


Further reading

* Borum, Viveka, and Erica Walker. "What makes the difference? Black women's undergraduate and graduate experiences in mathematics." ''Journal of Negro Education'' 81.4 (2012): 366-37
online
* * * Chapman, Angela, et al. "'Nothing is impossible': characteristics of Hispanic females participating in an informal STEM setting." ''Cultural Studies of Science Education'' (2019): 1–15
online
* Charleston, LaVar J., et al. "Navigating underrepresented STEM spaces: Experiences of Black women in US computing science higher education programs who actualize success." ''Journal of Diversity in Higher Education'' 7#3 (2014): 166–76.
online
* Contreras Aguirre, et al. "Latina college students' experiences in STEM at Hispanic-Serving Institutions: framed within Latino critical race theory." ''International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education'' (2020): 1–14. * Croucher, John S. ''Women in Science: 100 Inspirational Lives''. Gloucestershire UK 2019. * Dominus, Susan, "Sidelined: American women have been advancing science and technology for centuries. But their achievements weren't recognized until a tough-minded scholar [Margaret W. Rossiter] hit the road and rattled the academic world", ''Smithsonian'', vol. 50, no. 6 (October 2019), pp. 42–53, 80. * * * * Hanson, S. L. "African American women in science: Experiences from high school through the postsecondary years and beyond. ''NWSA Journal'' (2004) 16:96–115. * Henley, Megan M. "Women's success in academic science: Challenges to breaking through the ivory ceiling." ''Sociology Compass'' 9.8 (2015): 668–680
abstract
* * Hill, Catherine, Christianne Corbett, and Andresse St Rose. ''Why so few? Women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics'' (American Association of University Women, 2010). * * Jack, Jordynn. ''Science on the home front: American women scientists in World War II'' (U of Illinois Press, 2009). * * McGee, Ebony O., and Lydia Bentley. "The troubled success of Black women in STEM." ''Cognition and Instruction'' 35.4 (2017): 265-28
online
* Morton, Terrell R., Destiny S. Gee, and Ashley N. Woodson. "Being vs. Becoming: Transcending STEM Identity Development through Afropessimism, Moving toward a Black X Consciousness in STEM." ''Journal of Negro Education'' 88.3 (2020): 327-34
online
* Priyamvada Natarajan, Natarajan, Priyamvada, "Calculating Women" (review of Margot Lee Shetterly, ''Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race'', William Morrow; Dava Sobel, ''The Glass Universe: How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars'', Viking; and Nathalia Holt, ''Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars'', Little, Brown), ''The New York Review of Books'', vol. LXIV, no. 9 (25 May 2017), pp. 38–39. * * * Lasker Foundation, Pomeroy, Claire, "Academia's Gender Problem", ''Scientific American'', vol. 314, no. 1 (January 2016), p. 11. * * * * * * Wagner, Darren N., and Joanna Wharton. "The Sexes and the Sciences." ''Journal for Eighteenth‐Century Studies'' 42.4 (2019): 399-41
online
* * Watts, Ruth. ''Women in science: a social and cultural history'' (Routledge, 2007), comprehensive history of gender and women in science
excerpt


External links



Short, personal stories of females working in fields of science. A video series developed by th
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Gender tutorials on women in science
from Hunter College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY)
Statistics on women at science conferences
from the American Astronomical Society, Committee on the Status of Women in Astronomy

*[https://www.britannica.com/topic/Women-in-Science-2100321 Women in Science] at the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' {{Authority control Women and science, Women scientists, * Women in science and technology,