Hidden Figures: A History Of Women In Science

6/3/2017

At its surface, the 2016 film Hidden Figures seems to tell the story of the trials and tribulations of three African American women faced while working at NASA in the early days of the Space Race. But the film is more relevant now as the issue of women in science, in general, is still a matter they have yet to be addressed adequately.

This article is an attempt to put into perspective of how women have shaped science and human civilization throughout history.

"Certain people – men, of course – discouraged me, saying [science] was not a good career for women. That pushed me even more to persevere."
Francoise Barré-Sinoussi, virologist and winner of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine

The Sciences and Medicine are fields of study that have long been dominated by men. Whilst this has slowly begun to change over the last 150 years or so, even now, men still outnumber women in most research labs and university science departments.

Historically the male bias is understandable. For centuries, the majority of women were not educated at all and those fortunate enough to receive tutoring were pushed towards the arts, literature, language and other “ladylike” pursuits. The potential dangers of the chemistry lab or the visceral nature of anatomy were not considered suitable for ladies. However, there are historic examples of women who, despite society’s disapproval, made significant contributions to the advancement of science. They were not always credited for their work (Mary Anning for example) and were sometimes shunned or, like Hypatia and the countless herbalists burned as witches in the Middle Ages, killed for it.

Albeit that this article is inspired by the film Hidden Figures, which mainly addresses ethic issues, the fact that the main characters are women makes this film most relevant to our times. Whether as teachers and disseminators of information like Hypatia, or as brilliant research scientists like Marie Curie and Rosalind Franklin, these women are undeniably inspirational.

Hypatia of Alexandria (350AD – 415AD), philosopher and mathematician

Hypatia is somewhat of a legend in the history of women’s role in the sciences, not least for her dramatic end, torn apart by a Christian mob. Hypatia was the daughter of Theon Alexandricus, the last known mathematician to be associated with the Museum of Alexandria, and she is credited with being the first notable woman in the field of Mathematics. She was not a pure scientist, rather a teacher and commentator who encouraged logical and mathematical study.

Among works attributed to her are commentaries on the Arithmetica of Diophantus and Conics by Appollonius. She edited Ptolemy’s Almagest and her father’s commentary on Euclid’s Elements and wrote a text on The Astronomical Canon. It is impossible to say to what extent Hypatia’s work was also a collaboration with her father but there is reason to assume she was a talented mathematician in her own right.

Louise Bourgeois Boursier (1563-1636), medical pioneer

Louise Boursier can be credited as the founder of modern midwifery. Married to the French Royal Surgeon, Boursier encouraged a new, scientific approach to midwifery and collaborated with male surgeons in order to gain a better understanding of her subject. She studied Ambroise Parés book on Obstetrics and wrote several treatises of her own on the subject. Her 1609 book, ‘Various Observations on Sterility, Ability to Conceive, Childbirth, Female Illnesses and Infants’ went through five editions and was translated into four languages.

She was also the first person to describe the treatment of Chlorosis (severe iron deficiency anaemia) with iron. Midwifery had always been the preserve of women, but until Louise Bourgeois, it was more about experience and folk medicine than science. Her approach changed that and undoubtedly made childbirth safer for countless women.

Caroline Herschel (1750-1848), astronomer

Caroline Herschel was fortunate in that her brother William Herschel was the Royal Astronomer at the court in Windsor. William trained Caroline as his general assistant to help with writing down his observations and helping him to produce reflective telescopes.

She thus became the first woman to receive a salary for scientific work. But Caroline also taught herself algebra and the formulae needed to observe the stars and, between 1786 and 1797, she discovered eight comets and 14 nebulae as well as writing a catalogue of star clusters and nebulae and contributing to Flamsteed’s ‘Atlas of Stars’. She was awarded the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828 and became an honorary member of this organisation in 1835.

Mary Anning (1799-1847), paleontologist and naturalist

Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis, Dorset, on what is now known as the Jurassic Coast. Anning’s knowledge of the coastline and skill for locating and preparing fossils provided the sciences of geology and palaeontology with a series of important finds.

Among these and perhaps most well known were her discovery of the first Ichthyosaur to be recognised (now in the Natural History Museum, London), the first Pterosaur skeleton outside Germany and the first two Plesiosaur skeletons ever to be found. Anning’s discoveries along with her observations from the field played a key role in changing the way scientists thought about changes in the natural world. She did not always receive full credit for her contributions during her lifetime and, after her death was largely forgotten in scientific circles.

However, without Mary Anning’s sharp eye and keen observation, our knowledge and understanding of prehistoric life forms would be much poorer.

Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), statistician and public health advocate

Every schoolchild hears the story of Florence Nightingale, the caring “lady of the lamp” However, it is not for Florence Nightingale’s nursing work that I include her, rather for her work as a statistician. Whilst in the Crimea nursing wounded soldiers, Nightingale kept meticulous records on the causes of death of soldiers in the hospital.

She used these to demonstrate that the death toll rose in certain months due to the presence of diseases such as Typhus and Cholera. Her findings were not just useful for the military, workhouses had the same problems and her statistics were used as the basis for poverty law reform in the UK. For much of her life, Florence Nightingale was bedridden, yet she still published over 200 pamphlets and books on subjects ranging from public health in India to Sepsis in institutions.

She was the first woman elected as a fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, as well as being made an honorary fellow of the American Statistical Society. Nightingale showed great insight into the use of statistical analysis in the pursuit of public health and it is my view that she should be remembered for this, rather than nursing.

Marie Curie (1867-1934), physicist and chemist

It is impossible to compile a list of influential women in the sciences without including the brilliant Marie Curie. Not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, Marie Curie is also one of only two people (the other is Linus Pauling) to win two Nobel Prizes in different disciplines.

Marie Curie’s first Nobel Prize (Physics, 1903) was for her work on radiation. She shared the prize with her husband, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel. Becquerel had discovered in 1896 that uranium salts emit rays, now known as radiation. The Curies built on Becquerel’s discovery and discovered that the rays emitted by uranium salts caused the air around the sample to conduct electricity. Most importantly, Marie Curie went on to prove that the radiation came from the atom itself, rather than an interaction of molecules. Her discovery forced physicists to reconsider the basic principles of their science.

During her research, Marie Curie tested the uranium-related minerals, pitchblende and chalcolite, as she found a much greater radioactivity, she postulated that these minerals contained another element, much more radioactive than uranium. She and Pierre worked together processing vast quantities of ore and managed to isolate a new element which they named Polonium, after Marie’s native Poland. Several months later they succeeded in isolating the more unstable Radium.

By 1902 they had succeeded in extracting one tenth of a gram of radium chloride from a tonne of bismuth, but by 1906 Marie, working on her own after Pierre’s death, had isolated the pure radium metal. Marie Curie won the Chemistry prize in 1911 in recognition of her work in isolating the elements, Polonium and Radium. The implications of her work were far reaching. Diametrically opposed in terms of their effect on society, her discovery led ultimately to both the development of the atomic bomb and radiation therapy for cancer patients.

Rosalind Franklin (1920-1958), chemist and crystallographer

Crick, Watson and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for their work on DNA in 1962 without mentioning the work of Rosalind Franklin, which had provided them with crucial information regarding the structure of the double helix. It is one of science’s most outrageous omissions that Franklin was never credited in their work.

Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant physical chemist and a specialist in x-ray crystallography, a method used to find the arrangement of atoms within a crystal. An x-ray is focussed on the crystal and when it strikes, diffracts in many different directions. From the angle and intensity of these beams, a crystallographer can work out the position of the atoms, chemical bonds and the structure of the crystal. Rosalind Franklin’s work concentrated on materials that were poorly crystallised, such as carbon, graphite and plant viruses. These are not easy to work with, yet Franklin was renowned for her incredible ability to get results from these difficult samples.

In 1951, she began work on DNA at King’s College, London. Like the carbons she had worked with in France, DNA gives poor diffraction patterns, but this did not deter Franklin. DNA has two forms – A and B, it was Rosalind Franklin’s unique photograph of the B-form, shown secretly to Crick and Watson that provided them with the essential evidence to back up their proposed double helix structure.

Rosalind Franklin died 4 years before Crick, Watson and Wilkins received the Nobel Prize for their work on DNA. Had she survived would she have been the third recipient? Probably not as it wasn’t until 1968, in his book, ‘The Double Helix’, that Watson admitted to the secret viewing of the photograph.

Ponder this

What stands in the way of advancing women in science in the Malaysian society?

Some societies seem to to naturally catalyze the presence of women in academia (e.g. Ancient Greece), while others does not (e.g. Saudi Arabia). What seems to be the mix of sociological, economic, or cultural conditions that would lead the latter to change into the former?

Discuss

How many girls in the class are looking into pursuing a career in science? To those who aren't, discuss on the reasons why they choose not to? Are these reasons simply assumptions, or coming from the experience of others? Discuss on whether these assumptions are valid, and if they are from experience, elaborate on them.