I have now published 45 diaries on woman in science, dating from the time of Hypatia to the end of the Twentieth Century. An index of these, arranged by the date on which I posted them follows below the fold.
As I have stated earlier, one major reason I started this series, after someone on the Kos suggested it, was to point out that there were a fair number of female scientists and mathematicians prior to the 21st Century (more even than my criteria of only dealing with those who died before 2000 actually allows.) I have worked with at least a dozen living female scientists during my career and have never found them wanting in ability any more than the men I worked with. It, in fact, always puzzled me that anyone would think otherwise!
Among my female collaborators are at least two major museum curators, a director of outreach for a department of a Land Grant university, a director of a laboratory in the Middle East, a professor of virology at another Land Grant university, two professors of weed science, a professor of fishery science, a professional scientific illustrator and a statistician. Three women with whom I collaborated were my graduate students. When I was a candidate for the presidency of my main scientific research society I was beaten by a younger female scientist. When I went up to congratulate her, she said that she expected me to win and had voted for me. I replied that I had voted for her. I had no doubt that she was as qualified to fill the post as I was.
I plan to write a few more diaries on women in science, at least until I reach 50 or so, and than go on to other subjects. I am sure that there are more women from my time frame than that, possibly a hundred or so. Some, like Marie Curie, Rosalind Franklin and Lise Meitner, contributed greatly to our basic understanding of the natural world. Many, like most male scientists, were primarily among those who contribute knowledge that may be used as building blocks for greater insights later. Not all of us are Einsteins, certainly not myself. There is nothing wrong with this because you never know when some obscure fact gleaned from nature, often at great cost, will lead the way to revolutionary new insights. Women in science have provided both revolutionary new insights and huge quantities of the building blocks that lead to new insights. Given the prejudice with which many, if not most, of them had to fight to get anywhere in the field, I would say that they have done quite well. I look forward to their future contributions, not just as women, but as equal colleagues in the search for what we can learn of nature's secrets.
Marianne North http://www.dailykos.com/...
Margaret Mead http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mary Leakey http://www.dailykos.com/...
Martha Euphemia Loften Haynes http://www.dailykos.com/...
Anna Botsford Comstock http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mary Anning http://www.dailykos.com/...
Nellie Harris Rau http://www.dailykos.com/...
Chien-Shiung Wu http://www.dailykos.com/...
Virginia Apgar http://www.dailykos.com/...
Gloria Hollister Anable http://www.dailykos.com/...
Cynthia Longfield http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mary Lucy Cartwright http://www.dailykos.com/...
Admiral Grace Hopper http://www.dailykos.com/...
Elizabeth Bangs Bryant http://www.dailykos.com/...
Inge Lehmann http://www.dailykos.com/...
Marie Victoire Labour http://www.dailykos.com/...
Irène Joliot Curie http://www.dailykos.com/...
Marie Curie http://www.dailykos.com/...
Emmy Noether http://www.dailykos.com/...
Jocelyn Crane Griffin http://www.dailykos.com/...
Doris Cochran http://www.dailykos.com/...
Barbara McClintock http://www.dailykos.com/...
Augusta Ada King Countess of Lovelace http://www.dailykos.com/...
Hypatia http://www.dailykos.com/...
Jeanne Baret http://www.dailykos.com/...
Margaret Ursula Mee http://www.dailykos.com/...
Jane Colden http://www.dailykos.com/...
Rachel Carson http://www.dailykos.com/...
Florence Bascom http://www.dailykos.com/...
Rosalind-Franklin http://www.dailykos.com/...
Henrietta Swan Leavitt http://www.dailykos.com/...
Florence Merriam Bailey http://www.dailykos.com/...
Edith Marion Patch http://www.dailykos.com/...
Maria Mitchell http://www.dailykos.com/...
Annie Jump Cannon http://www.dailykos.com/...
Alice Gray http://www.dailykos.com/...
Mary Davis Treat http://www.dailykos.com/...
Ann Haven Morgan http://www.dailykos.com/...
Arabella Buckley http://www.dailykos.com/...
Maria Sibylla Merian http://www.dailykos.com/...
Elizabeth Gifford Peckham http://www.dailykos.com/...
Lise Meitner http://www.dailykos.com/...
Cecilia Payne Gaposchkin http://www.dailykos.com/....
Beatrix Potter http://www.dailykos.com/...
Libbie Hyman http://www.dailykos.com/...