against women barred one of the most brilliant astronomers of the 20th century from ever actually viewing the stars she was studying. This did not pose a problem however, as Henrietta Swan Leavitt challenged these notions of female inferiority and ineptitude by entering the predominately male field of astrology and excelling. Henrietta Leavitt's prodigious discovery of the period-luminosity relationship amongst Cepheid variable stars would forever change the way we perceive the universe and known galaxies