Women in Science
Ever since the dawn of history of science, women have been making a lot of significant contributions to the development of science and human civilization. In this article, we shall look at some of their contributions which shaped the history of science and some of the most accomplished but largely forgotten women scientists and mathematicians. The article will follow a linear chronological order as we look into many of the notable women and their work in shaping the history and development of science and mathematics.
One of the earliest accounts of women in science dates back to ancient Greece. Agamede was cited by Homer as a healer in ancient Greece before the Trojan War (c. 1194-1184 BCE). One late antique legend has it that Agnodice was the first female physician to practice legally in fourth century BCE Athens.
Women could freely study natural philosophy (the precursor of natural sciences) in ancient Greece was open to women. Historical records include Aglaonike, astronomer, who predicted eclipses and Theano, mathematician and physician, who was a pupil of Pythagoras (one of the most important mathematicians in history).
Around 1200 BCE during Babylonian civilization, two perfumeresses were able to obtain the essences from plants by using extraction and distillation procedures. The Egyptian dynasty accounts women who 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 (the precusor of modern-day chemistry). Mary the Jewess is the most famous of the women alchemist; she has been credited with inventing several chemical instruments, including the double boiler, a distillation equipment of that time.
Women also made marks in philosophy and mathematics. Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 350-415 CE) is the earliest known female mathematician about whom detailed information has survived. She is credited with writing several important commentaries on geometry, algebra and astronomy.
When the first universities emerged in 11th century, women were, for the most part, excluded from university education. The Italian University of Bologna was an exception; they allowed women to attend lectures since its inception, in 1088. The attitute of educating women in medical fiends in Italy was more liberal than in other places, leading to notable female physicians such as Dorotea Bucca and Trotula di Ruggiero.
The Scientific Revolution of the 1600s and 1700s also saw the rise of notable women in alchemy, philosophy and natural sciences. Isabella Cortese, an Italian alchemist, was able to manipulate nature in order to create several medicinal, alchemy and cosmetic "secrets" or experiments. Sophia Brahe taught herself astronomy by studying books in German and her observations led to the discovery of the Supernova SN 1572 which helped refute the geocentric model of the universe.
Despite many notable women contributions, the Scientific Revolution did little to change people's ideas about women in science. Women were often depicted as both innately emotional and incapable of objective reasoning, or as natural mothers reproducing a natural, moral society.
According to Britannica, Maria Gaetana Agnesi 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 giving a systematic illustration of the different results and theorems of infinitesimal calculus. Émilie du Châtelet was the first scientist to appreciate the significance of kinetic energy, as opposed to momentum. In 1749, she completed the French translation of Newton's Principia. The astronomer Caroline Herschel discovered eight comets during 1786-97.
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. However, as the nineteenth century progressed, botany and other sciences became increasingly professionalized, and women were increasingly excluded.
English mathematician Ada Lovelace made contributions to Charles Babbage's Analytic Engine; she is credited to be the first computer programmer. But a large proportion of the most successful women in the STEM fields in the second half of the 19th century were Russians. The mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaia (1850-1891), was the first woman in 19th century Europe to receive a doctorate in mathematics and the first to become a university professor in any field.
Science and mathematics flourished in 20th century more than in any other century. A significant proportion of scientific accomplishments were made by women. Polish-French physicist and chemist Marie Skłodowska-Curie (1867-1934) was the first woman to win a Nobel in 1903 (physics); she went on to become the first person to win two Nobel prizes, both for her work on radiation. Austrian-Swedish physicist Lise Meitner (1878-1968) played a significant role in the discovery of nuclear fission; she derived the theoretical explanation demonstrating the occurrence of nuclear fission. German mathematician Emmy Noether (1882-1935) revolutionized abstract algebra, filled in gaps in general relativity and gave one of the most important theorems about conserved quantities in physics, which now bears her name (Noether's theorem). However, she was not allowed to present her paper herself before a scientific organization in Göttingen. British mathematician Mary Cartwright (1900-1998) was the first to analyze a dynamical system with chaos and became a pioneer and founder of chaos theory; she also saw many solutions of the Butterfly effect. Danish seismologist and geophysicst Inge Lehmann (1888-1993) discovered that inside the Earth's molten core there is a solid inner core.
Similar developments were seen in the Americas as well. Annie Jump Cannon 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. Henrietta Swan Leavitt first published her study of variable stars in 1908. This discovery became known as the "period-luminosity relationship" of Cepheid variables. Our picture of the universe was changed forever, largely because of Leavitt's discovery. The accomplishments of Edwin Hubble, renowned American astronomer, were made possible by Leavitt's groundbreaking research and Leavitt's Law. Hubble often said that Leavitt deserved the Nobel for her work. Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, while she was a still graduate student, demonstrated for the first time from existing evidence on the spectra of stars that stars were made up almost exclusively of hydrogen and helium, one of the most fundamental theories in stellar astrophysics. Gerty Cori, biochemist, 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.
A significant developments in science post WWII owes to women scientists. French virologist Françoise Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS, for which she won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Irish astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered evidence for the first known radio pulsar, which resulted in the 1974 Nobel Prize in Physics for her supervisor. British chemist and crystallographer Rosalind Franklin did profound work helping to elucidate the fine structures of coal, graphite, DNA and viruses. In 1953, the work she did on DNA allowed Watson and Crick 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. British primatologist Jane Goodall is 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.
Similar developments were seen in the United States as well. Six of the original programmers for the ENIAC, the first general purpose electronic computer, were all women. Maria Goeppert Mayer proposed the nuclear shell model of the atomic nucleus; for which she received the Nobel in physics. Grace Murray Hopper developed the first computer compiler. Deborah S. Jin's team produced the first fermionic condensate, a new state of matter. Vera Rubin discovered the Galaxy rotation problem, now taken to be one of the key pieces of evidence for the existence of dark matter.
The scientific world has come a long way; it has undergone quite a number of evolutions. There are a lot more women in science today than ever before. Indeed, in some areas of sciences such as life sciences, there are more women than men in many parts of the world.