The rarely known astronomer, Henrietta Leavitt made the discovery of the period-lumination relationship as well as a guideline for measuring the magnitude of stars. Although, these discoveries were monumental in the field of astronomy and became the foundations for many other discoveries, she is almost unknown, like many prominent women in the field of astronomy. This is because science, as both a study as well as a profession, is male dominated and women are not seen as equals or qualified to be in such work. In Leavitt's lifetime, she experienced this sexism in her post-graduate career along with her two major discoveries. Henrietta Leavitt was born in the state of Massachusetts in the year of 1868. Leavitt went to Oberlin College and then
Harper Lee was born Nelle Harper Lee on April 28, 1926 in Monroeville, Alabama. She attended Huntingdon College and she also studied law at the University of Alabama. She gave up her career in law because she decided to pursue her love for literature. Harper Lee o...
Rosalind Franklin: Seeing a woman as a scientist during this time is somewhat rare, so the fact that she has taken up this profession show that she is persistent, dedicated, and smart. The only problem is that she is undervalued because of her gender. She is also very quiet and reserved because she’s in a different country.
“I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned.” (www.doonething.org). Lucy Stone was born in West Brookfield, Massachusetts on August 13, 1818. Her parents, Francis Stone and Hannah Matthews, were abolitionists and Congregationalists. Stone retained their anti-slavery opinions but rejected the Congregationalist Church after it criticized abolitionists. Along with her anti-slavery attitude, Lucy Stone also pursued a higher education. She completed local schools at the age of sixteen and saved money until she could attend a term at Mount Holyoke Seminary five years later. In 1843, Stone enrolled at the Oberlin Collegiate Institute (later Oberlin College). With her graduation in 1847, she became the first Massachusetts woman to earn a bachelor’s degree. However, Lucy Stone was not done expressing her abolitionist and feminist beliefs to the public (anb.org).
The 17th and 18th centuries saw the embryonic stage of women’s quest for intellectual and social parity with men. The evolution of women’s fight for equal opportunities was bogged down by a long history of stereotyping and condescension. Women were weaker physically, bore children and nurtured them. The economics and culture of Europe at this time was strongly influenced by religion and resulted in prejudice against women. The dominating religions of Europe in the 1600’s and 1700’s (Catholicism and Protestantism), citing the bible, reinforced women’s roles as mother’s, wives, and homemakers. Women were considered the weaker sex both physically and mentally. Men and most women assumed that because women gave birth and produced milk for their infants, God intended that their place was in the home. Men’s egos, as well, did not allow for women to compete with them. Males thought their place was to rule, fight wars, provide income, teach and be the head of his family. Women were not accepted in academics, politics, church leadership, business, or the military. Despite these prejudices, women saw an opportunity in the sciences. As a discipline based on observations and deductive reasoning it did not necessarily require a comprehensive academic background. Since most women were deprived of the more advanced education that men received, it was the perfect field for them to begin their pursuit of equality. As a result, a growing number of women actively participated in scientific research in chemistry, astronomy, biology, botany, medicine, and entomology.
She graduated from Dunbar Junior High School, then went to Horace Mann High School, which at that time, was an all black school.
Harriet was born in an orderly, federal-era town of Litchfield, Connecticut on June 14th 1811. She was the seventh child of Lyman and Roxana Beecher. Her family ran a boarding house during her childhood, which her father Lyman was constantly expanding to make room for is growing family and growing number of boarders. (Hendrick, 1994)
Boyle, Kay. "Astronomer's Wife." Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays, and Essays. Fourth Edition. Ed. Judith A. Stanford. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. 619-623.
Rossiter, Margaret W. (1982). Women Scientists in America: Struggles and Strategies to 1940. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Edie Windsor was born in Philadelphia in 1929. She was originally married to a man, but left him in 1950 to move to New York City by herself. Edie received her mathematics degree in 1957 from New York University. She worked in mathematics and computers with IBM. She
Bjornerud Marcia. "Gaia-Gender and Scientific Representations of the Earth [Part 1 of 2]" {Contemporary Women's Database} Sep. 1997: 96-106.
When most people think of the Scientific Revolution, they think of scientists such as Galileo, Newton, Brahe, and Boyle. However, many people do not even know about the many women who played a vital role in the scientific advancements of this period. Even when these women were alive, most of society either ignored them or publicly disapproved their unladylike behavior. Because of this, these women were often forgotten from history, and very little is known about the majority of them. Although their names rarely appear in history books, the female scientists of the Scientific Revolution still impacted the world of science in several ways. In fact, all of the scientists listed above had a woman playing an influential role assisting them in their research. However, assisting men in their studies was not the only role open to women; several women performed experimentation and research on their own, or advancing science in some other way, even though the society of the time looked down upon and even resisted their studies.
Smith, Michelle R. “Giving Female Scientists Their Due.” Philly.com. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 17 Oct. 2013. Web. 05 Mar. 2014.
One of the most renowned scientists of the 1800’s and early 1900’s was Sir Joseph Norman Lockyer. He is known worldwide for his accomplishments and discoveries among researchers in the scientific field, particularly for the discovery of helium. Lockyer was fascinated with astronomy and wished to advance his growth of natural knowledge and spectroscopic researches. Being an imaginative analyst as well as an intelligent one placed him in high regard among explorers of modern science. From building his own observatory to being knighted, Lockyer was a valuable asset to astronomical study.
Martha C. Chase was born in Cleveland, Ohio on November 30, 1927. In 1950, she received her bachelor of science from the College of Wooster and then continued schooling at the University of Southern California where she earned her Ph.D. in 1964. She was known for a little in the 1950s, as Martha Epstein since marrying Richard Epstein another scientist, but later divorced.
Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey. Women in Science: Antiquity through the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge (Mass.): MIT, 1988. Print.