INTRODUCTION
Women in
Mathematics, Science &
Engineering
Through the Ages
MSE 302
Introduction
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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
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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
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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
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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.
Introduction
The Dark Ages and the Medieval period:
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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
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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
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The Renaissance: By 1200 A.D. more women
were practicing science in Europe than any
previous time.
The Scientific Revolution:
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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
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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
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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.
Introduction
The Twentieth Century:
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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
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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.