Single-Minded Women of Science

Abstract

In the early 1970s, when I was first asked to teach a course on women in science, I could think of only two: Marie Curie (of course) and Lise Meitner. I accepted anyway. Women's studies was a new field. I expected that my list of women would get a little longer, and I hoped to address the question, Why so few? As it turns out, they were not so few. Over the centuries, there have always been women scientists and mathematicians. There were women of genius, such as Maria Agnesi and Laura Bassi, Emilie du Chatelet and Sophie Germain, Mary Somerville and Sofia Kovalevskaia. There were also women whose names we know only because they worked with men, an arrangement that tended to obscure their contributions. Prior to this century, the experience shared by all these women was an irregular education. Well into this century, the professions were barely accessible to them. Throughout, women have ...