The Palgrave Handbook of Women and Science since 1660

659 Pages·2021·10.985 MB·English

by  Claire G. Jones, Alison E. Martin, Alexis Wolf

The Palgrave Handbook of
Women and Science
since 1660
Edited by Claire G. Jones
Alison E. Martin · Alexis Wolf
The Palgrave Handbook of Women and Science
since 1660
· ·
Claire G. Jones Alison E. Martin Alexis Wolf
Editors
The Palgrave
Handbook of Women
and Science since 1660
Editors
Claire G. Jones Alison E. Martin
Faculty of Humanities Johannes Gutenberg University
and Social Sciences of Mainz
University of Liverpool Germersheim, Germany
Liverpool, UK
Alexis Wolf
University of Lancaster
Lancaster, UK
ISBN 978-3-030-78972-5 ISBN 978-3-030-78973-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78973-2
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In memory of
Brandie R. Siegfried
(1963–2021)
Acknowledgements
Alison E. Martin is grateful for the help of Lena Bunje and Felix Barthelmay
in assisting with editing work on sections V and VI, and would particularly
like to thank them for their close attention to detail and commitment to the
project in challenging circumstances.
The editors would like to thank Elske Janssen for producing the index.
vii
Contents
Part I Introduction
1 Women in the History of Science: Frameworks, Themes
and Contested Perspectives 3
Claire G. Jones, Alison E. Martin, and Alexis Wolf
Part II Strategies and Networks
2 The Natural Philosophy of Margaret Cavendish,
Duchess of Newcastle: Nature, Self-Knowing Matter,
and the Dialogic Universe 27
Brandie R. Siegfried
3 Navigating Enlightenment Science: The Case of Marie
Geneviève-Charlotte Darlus Thiroux D’Arconville
and Gabrielle Émilie Le Tonnelier De Breteuil
and the Republic of Letters 47
Leigh Whaley
4 ‘A Valuable Gift’: The Medical Life of Margaret Mason,
Lady Mount Cashell 67
Alexis Wolf
5 Janet Taylor (1804–1870): Mathematical Instrument
Maker and Teacher of Navigation 85
John S. Croucher
6 Early Female Geologists: The Importance of Professional
and Educational Societies During the Late Nineteenth
and Early Twentieth Centuries 101
Cynthia V. Burek
ix
x CONTENTS
Part III Making Women Visible: Institutions, Archives and
Inclusion
7 Where Are the Women? How Archives Can Reveal Hidden
Women in Science 129
Anne Barrett
8 ‘A Very Worthy Lady’: Women Lecturing at the Royal
Geographical Society, 1913–C.1940 149
Sarah L. Evans
9 Women at the Royal Society Soirée Before the Great War 171
Claire G. Jones
10 Career Paths Dependent and Supported: The Role
of Women’s Universities in Ensuring Access to STEM
Education and Research Careers in Japan 195
Naonori Kodate and Kashiko Kodate
11 Internationalism and Women Mathematicians
at the University of Göttingen 223
Renate Tobies
Part IV Cultures of Science
12 Astronomy, Education and the Herschel Family: From
Caroline to Constance 247
Emily Winterburn
13 Domestic Astronomy in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth
Centuries 269
Gabriella Bernardi
14 Darwin and the Feminists: Nineteenth-Century Debates
About Female Inferiority 289
Amanda M. Caleb
15 Women, Gender and Computing: The Social Shaping
of a Technical Field from Ada Lovelace’s Algorithm
to Anita Borg’s ‘Systers’ 307
Corinna Schlombs
16 The Cultural Context of Gendered Science: India 333
Carol C. Mukhopadhyay
17 A Seat at the Table: Women and the Periodic System 355
Brigitte Van Tiggelen and Annette Lykknes
CONTENTS xi
Part V Science Communication
18 Mediating Knowledge: Women Translating Science 381
Alison E. Martin
19 Queen Lovisa Ulrika of Sweden (1720–1782): Philosophe
and Collector 399
Anne E. Harbers and Andrea M. Gáldy
20 Marianne North and Scientific Illustration 423
Philip Kerrigan
21 TheCycleofCreditandPhaticCommunicationinScience:
The Case of Catherine Henley 447
Jordynn Jack
22 Rachel Carson: Scientist, Public Educator
and Environmentalist 465
Ruth Watts
23 Representing Women in STEM in Science-Based Film
and Television 483
Amy C. Chambers
Part VI Access, Diversity and Practice
24 Catalysts, Compilers and Expositors: Rethinking Women’s
Pivotal Contributions to Nineteenth-Century ‘Physical
Sciences’ 505
Mary Orr
25 ‘The Question Is One of Extreme Difficulty’: The
Admission of Women to the British and Irish Medical
Profession, C. 1850–1920 529
Laura Kelly
26 The Work of British Women Mathematicians During
the First World War 549
June Barrow-Green and Tony Royle
27 More Than Pioneers—How Women Became Professional
Engineers Before the Mid-Twentieth Century 573
Nina Baker
28 Women and Surgery After the Great War 593
Claire Brock
29 Technology Users vs. Technology Inventors and Why We
Should Care 611
Wendy M. DuBow
Index 633
Notes on Contributors
Nina Baker has had a varied career, having become a merchant navy deck
officer on leaving school and later taken an Engineering Design degree in her
thirties, from the University of Warwick. She then gained a Ph.D. in concrete
durability from the University of Liverpool. She has lived with her family
in Glasgow since 1989, working variously as a materials lecturer in further
education and as a research administrator and, until 2017, as an elected city
councillor.Nowretiredfromallthat,herinterestinpromotingSTEMcareers
for girls has led her to become an independent researcher, mainly specializing
in the history of women working in engineering.
Anne Barrett M.A. AIC (Associateship of Imperial College London) is a
CollegeArchivist&CorporateRecordsManageratImperialCollegeLondon.
Anne has extensive experience in scientific archives and their management,
which is invaluable in satisfying the diverse enquiries of internal and external
users at Imperial College London, and in her own research. Externally, she
works with national and international archival, records management and stan-
dardsbodies,andisChairpersonoftwoarchivecharitiesandTrusteeofthree.
Her most recent publication is Women At Imperial College Past, Present and
Future (2017 World Scientific). She has also contributed articles to Oxford
Dictionary of National Biography. In relation to International Women’s cele-
brations at Imperial College London, she runs an annual Women Wikithon,
giving the seminar attendees the opportunity to learn how to edit Wikipedia
entries, and add to the number of entries for women in STEMM.
June Barrow-Green is a Professor of History of Mathematics at the Open
University, Milton Keynes, UK. She is currently Chair of the International
Commission on the History of Mathematics. Her research focuses on the
history of nineteenth and twentieth century mathematics, particularly in
Britain. Recent studies concern the role of Cambridge mathematicians during
World War One, and the use of geometric surface models in research and in
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