Forces of Nature

The Women who Changed Science

Anna Reser, Leila McNeill

• Publisher: Frances Lincoln
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN: 9780711248977
• eBook ISBN: 9780711248984
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Social Science Biographies
• Index: History

From the ancient world to the present women have been critical to the progress of science, yet their importance is overlooked, their stories lost, distorted, or actively suppressed. Forces of Nature sets the record straight and charts the fascinating history of women’s discoveries in science.
 
In the ancient and medieval world, women served as royal physicians and nurses, taught mathematics, studied the stars, and practiced midwifery. As natural philosophers, physicists, anatomists, and botanists, they were central to the great intellectual flourishing of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. More recently women have been crucially involved in the Manhattan Project, pioneering space missions and much more. Despite their record of illustrious achievements, even today very few women win Nobel Prizes in science.
 
In this thoroughly researched, authoritative work, you will discover how women have navigated a male-dominated scientific culture – showing themselves to be pioneers and trailblazers, often without any recognition at all. Included in the book are the stories of:

• Hypatia of Alexandria, one of the earliest recorded female mathematicians
• Maria Cunitz who corrected errors in Kepler’s work
• Emmy Noether who discovered fundamental laws of physics
• Vera Rubin one of the most influential astronomers of the twentieth century
• Jocelyn Bell Burnell who helped discover pulsars

Afterword

Other women to inspire

Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson

(1836–1917)

Heavily influenced by American physician Elizabeth Blackwell, Elizabeth Garrett-Anderson took up a life in medicine instead of marriage. Anderson struggled for years to find a medical school that would accept her, ultimately earning her medical degree in Paris. She became the first British woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon. She later founded the New Hospital for Women in London and was appointed dean of the London School of Medicine for Women, which she also helped establish. In 1908, Anderson added another “first” to her name when she became mayor of Aldeburgh and first woman mayor in England.

Sophia Jex-Blake

(1840–1912)

Sophia Jex-Blake was influential in opening the medical field to women physicians. Denied study of medicine by both American and English universities, Jex-Blake and six other women, known as the Edinburgh Seven, enrolled at the University of Edinburgh, but she was notallowed to earn a degree. She spearheaded the Medical Act of 1878, which struck down previous Acts that excluded women from medical licensing. Finally, in 1877, Jex-Blake graduated as a M.D. from the University of Berne.

Aletta Henriëtte Jacobs

(1854–1929)

Aletta Jacobs—physician, suffragist, birth control advocate, peace activist— was the first woman in The Netherlands to attend a university and receive a medical degree. Despite resistance from the medical community, Jacobs opened the world’s first birth control clinic. In serving women at her clinic, she combined her advocacy for women’s healthcare and for women’s rights in labor, seeing firsthand the toll long work days in deleterious conditions took on women’s bodies. Beyond medicine, Jacobs co-founded the Woman Suffrage Alliance and helped establish the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom.

Margaret Alice Murray

(1863–1963)

Archaeologist, Egyptologist, folklorist, and anthropologist, Margaret Murray left her mark on multiple fields over the course of her 100- year-long life. Murray was the first woman lecturer in archaeology in the United Kingdom and established the first two-year universiting training program for future field workers at University College, London. As a folklorist, she developed the “witch cult hypothesis,” the earliest anthropological study on witchcraft in Britain, which has since become the foundation of scholarly studies of witchcraft. A towering figure as a “first” in her field, she served as a mentor to all those who passed through her classroom.

Gertrude Bell

(1868–1926)

Dubbed “Queen of the Desert” and the “Female Lawrence of Arabia,” Gertrude Bell was an archaeologist, spy, and diplomat. Bell traveled throughout the Middle East, excavating ruins in Syria and mapping large portions of the region. During World War I, Bell assisted British Intelligence by escorting soldiers across the deserts of the Middle East, and she became a knowledgeable intelligence officer, trusted by both the British and Arabian people. Her most enduring legacy is her diplom...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Introduction: Reading Women’s Silence in the History of Science
• Section I: Antiquity to the Middles Ages
• Section II: The Renaissance & The Enlightenment
• Section III: The Long Nineteenth Century
• Section IV: The Twentieth Century, Pre-World War II
• Section V: The Twentieth Century, Post-World War II
• Afterword
• Dedication
• Copyright