Success of the WomanOn Women and Science

A Quick Note

• Make sure you’re aware of the other scientists we didn’t cover in class—they matter (Paracelsus, Vesalius, Harvey, Boyle, Lavoisier)

• Also, Newton is really important even though we only briefly talked about thee

Know Your Role…Or Pave Your Own Path…

• In the Middle Ages, a woman’s proper role was as a daughter, wife, and mother

• However, elite women began to gain opportunities in European society in the late 14th and early 15th centuries

• Elite, intelligent husbands encouraged their wives to read and study Classical and Christian texts

• This humanist education continued for some (though not many) of the privileged women into the 17th century• Generally, these were daughters (or granddaughters, great-

granddaughters, etc.) of the elites referenced above

A Tasty (Caven)dish

• Having said that, most of a female’s education was informal• Nobles often lived a life of leisure and therefore had the resources to gain easy

access to the world of learning• Margaret Cavendish was a participant in the crucial scientific debates of her time• Though she still wasn’t included in the Royal Society• Women could be smart—they just couldn’t be recognized at society’s highest level

for it

• Cavendish attacked a growing belief that through science humans would be masters of nature in Observations upon Experimental Philosophy and Grounds of Natural Philosophy

• “We have no power at all over natural causes and effects…for man is but a small part…His powers are but particular actions of Nature, and he cannot have a supreme and absolute power.”

Heil…okay, that joke still can’t work 75 years after the fact…

• Aristocrats worked in science in England and France• In Germany, females participated in craft production,

which gave them a gateway to their involvement in observational science (especially entomology and astronomy)

• In fact, between 1650 and 1710, one of every seven German astronomers was a woman

Mer(ry)ian Christmas!

• Maria Merian was a entomologist whose training came from working in her dad’s workshop, learning the art of illustration

• Illustrating objects was important for Merian because her observation of insects and plants were demonstrated through those illustrations

• In 1699, she took a trip to Surinam in South America (Dutch Colony) to collect and draw samples of plants and insect life, leading to Metamorphosis of the Insects of Surinam• This work showed the reproductive and developmental cycles

of Surinam’s insect life

A Wink(elmann) and a Nod

• Astronomy also gave women chances to work in family observatories, working under the training of their fathers or husbands

• Maria Winkelmann was the most famous female astronomer in Germany, learning firsts from her father and uncle, and receiving training in astronomy from a nearby self-taught astronomer

• She married Gottfriend Kirch and became his assistant astronomer at the astronomical observatory operated in Berlin by the Academy of Science

• Winkelmann discovered a previously unseen comet and corresponded with scientist Gottfriend Leibniz (who also invented calculus, separately and independently from Newton)

• When he husband died, Winkelmann applied for a different assistant astronomer’s position but was denied by the Berlin Acadmy despite high qualifications because they feared it would establish a precedent by hiring a woman

• Science was always considered a male profession; females had not broken through the glass ceiling yet

• Nothing formally excluded women from membership in the new scientific societies, but not woman was invited to join the Royal Society of England or the French Academy of Sciences either…UNTIL THE 20TH CENTURY!

The Natural Inferiority of Women…uh oh…this could get ugly…

• The querelles des femmes (arguments about women) were male dominated debates

• Male opinions on women were mostly a carryover from medieval times, as they were portrayed as inherently base, prone to vice, easily swayed, and “sexually insatiable”

• Honestly, doesn’t that read like some dirty old man’s fantasy?• Because of all these factors, men felt they needed to control

women• Smart women were seen as having overcome female liabilities

to become like men• One female’s writings were so good that you “would hardly

believe they were done by a woman at all”

The Natural Inferiority of Women…uh oh…this could get ugly…

• In the early modern era, women start to fight back• Women argue they had rational minds and could grow from education and that

since most women were pious, chaste, and temperate, there was no need for male authority over them• What do pious, chaste, and temperate mean?

• The female defenders emphasized education as the key to women’s ability to move into the world

• However, possibly surprisingly, the Scientific Revolution reinforced old, stereotypical views about a woman’s place in the scheme of things

• I really don’t want to talk about the pelvis too much, but it is key to note that the large female pelvic area “proved” (according to many men of the time) that women were meant to be child bearers

• The larger skulls of men “demonstrated” the superiority of the male mind• Male-dominated science had been used to “prove” male social dominance• The age-old historical adage is in play again: Those in power get to make the

rules

The Final Score

• Overall, the Scientific Revolution reaffirmed traditional ideas about women

• Male scientists used new science to spread the view that women were inferior by nature and should play a domestic role as nurturing mothers

• Widely-read books further supported the theories• Jean de La Bruyere said that an educated woman was like

a gun that was a collector’s item “which one shows to the curious, but which has no use at all, any more than a carousel horse”

Anger

• So after reading all that, I have to assume the ladies are a bit fired up• And if I know a couple of the guys in this class (Alec), they want to have fun

with the female as inferior trope…• …So let’s have fun with it• On p. 503 there is a document titled “The ‘Natural’ Inferiority of Women”

• Ladies: you get to defend your gender’s honor• Guys: you get to be chauvinists• We are going to have a Battle of the Sexes debate, with this article as the fulcrum,

though you are welcome to use whatever other sources we have in our library• The argument: Women are inferior to men. • Women: you argue the negative; Men: you argue the affirmative • This should be fun…and could get ugly…keep it clean, keep it factually based (as

much as possible)• You have 10-15 minutes to prepare and then we’ll debate—everyone must speak

(time may be adjusted based upon how long the notes take)