MSE 302

INTRODUCTION

Women in Mathematics, Science &

Engineering Through the Ages

Introduction

Prehistory: Many women in prehistoric time probably possessed what might now be considered technical knowledge.

Through observation and trial and error, [women] must have learned the nutritional value, medicinal properties, season, and methods of preparing and using various plant products.

Introduction

Early women could have invented the tools they needed to perform these feats: sticks, levers, axes, flints, mortals and pestles, and others (Alic 1986)

Early women certainly devised ways of creating useful items such as clothing and storage containers from plant and animal products.

Introduction Antiquity: There are historical evidence

of specific individual women engaging in activity related to science or technology dating back six thousand years.

Medicine seems to have been a well established field in Egypt, with many women working as doctors and surgeons.

The Greek Period: Around 600 B.C. Greek science began to flourish, and history recorded a much larger number of individual women in science and technology.

Introduction The Greek period is especially important

because of the great influence “the classics" would have throughout later centuries; citing the ancient world for years constitute proofing an argument.

It is significant to note that where Plato tried to develop an inclusive system, Aristotle(384-322B.C.), who is seen as father of modern science, said that women possessed no logic or intelligence. Exclusion of women was an integral part of “scientific” thinking early on.

IntroductionThe Dark Ages and the Medieval period: While women practitioners continued the practice

of medicine and alchemy, much of what we call intellectual life in the West stagnated or came to a stop during this period. However, knowledge of science persisted in Arabic cultural and elsewhere.

Royal women in the Byzantine empire studied science and medicine with scholars in their courts and were women engineers in China.

Around 1000 A.D. European science began to grow and expand. Starting with Italy, which had the most peaceful dealing with Muslim and Byzantine culture, and slowly moving north.

Introduction The fifteenth, Sixteenth, and

Seventeenth Centuries . The people of Renaissance Europe were aware

of their own unique position in history. Historically, periods of great brilliance in

science have been preceded by times of great productivity in the arts and sciences. This pattern applies to the intellectual and cultural developments of fifteenth to eighteenth centuries.

Introduction The Renaissance: By 1200 A.D. more

women were practicing science in Europe than any previous time.

The Scientific Revolution: Began in the 1600s defined the systems of science and technology

that exist to this day Modern science was being defined as

objective, rational, analytical, and detached. In the 1600s and 1700s A.D. women’s

participation in science was very much an open question.

Introduction

The Industrial Revelution(1750-1852): Technology outside of “Women’s Sphere”

Time of frustration with the limited roles available to women.

The doctrine of “ separate spheres” dictated that a man’s proper sphere was the public realm of business and politics while a women’s domain was the personal, private, and domestic.

Introduction Through the 1800’s, women were very

much dependent on men for access to scientific and technical careers.

Organized scientific instruction for women that might lead to careers was still largely unavailable.

1836 was the year that Georgia Female college at Macon grant degrees to women in the United States. This is about two hundred years after Harvard granted degrees to men.

Introduction

In the late 1800s, science was consciously trying to transform itself into a profession and, as part of that quest, scientific societies were formed. These group rarely welcomed women.

The Nineteenth Century: The early years of advancement were followed by some setbacks before the 1914 decision to admit women of Wenham and Gorton Colleges to all university classes.

By the late ninetieth century, women had joined the scientific ranks and were educated within or parallel to the growing academic scientific disciplines.

IntroductionThe Twentieth Century: The political and educational systems in both

the United States and Europe underwent upheavals during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that influenced the likelihood of women becoming involved in science.

Educational reforms, proceeding alongside the political changes, increased the probability that women would be active in science, the United States, with its system of public education , was more open to the education of women than most European countries. At the turn of the century, although much of the world of scholarship had been opened to women, their numbers in scientific disciplines remained low.

Introduction Although women scientist and engineers

got better and better at generating static's to prove they were being treated unfairly, they were unable to persuade any institutions to rectify the problem.

Thousands of women were employed in women’s colleges, in government, and in industry, but they were unable to advance as men did. With territorial and hierarchical segregation still in force, women were channeled in to certain fields, kept in lower ranks, and paid lower salaries by men.