When Women Gather
It’s Women’s History Month, and this year, Math! Science! History! is focusing on the amazing women in science from the eighteenth century.
In eighteenth-century Europe, there was an increase in women entering the field of science, more so than in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, there was a slow development of women in science. However, Europe experienced a considerable increase of women in science by the eighteenth century, specifically in Italy, France, Germany, Britain, Sweden, Switzerland, America, and the Netherlands. As a result, after the eighteenth century, as the world entered an age of the Industrial Revolution, the French Revolution, and the New Imperialism, women had established a small foothold in science. Regardless, they still did not stand on equal footing with their male counterparts. On the contrary, women were still significantly outnumbered by men in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, just as they are today.
What happened within the eighteenth century that set women up for success and presented opportunities for them? Especially since, though some men advocated for women’s education, women still encountered overt dissonance from the male community. Something occurred across Europe that encouraged women to read, question, and debate the study of science. Women were inspired by science. Maybe it started with the printing press and the mass production of books. Possibly it was the Enlightenment and its influence on empirical thought. How did women make so much progress despite the opposition from a society that believed women should be at home and not involved with science? The answer is that they proved that there was power in numbers. They began to gather. Women gathered for intellectual conversation in cafes, homes, salons, and boudoirs. Furthermore, women invited many other women, regardless of class or aristocracy. And because of this, across Europe, there was a significant uptick in the attendance of women involved in the studies and observation of astronomy, anatomy, mathematics, physics, biology, and other academic fields.
Women who met in these scholarly gatherings found scientific inspiration. These women empowered each other at these meetings. They realized that they had human rights, academic rights, and the right to be part of empirical science. Moreover, though they faced backlash for their efforts to educate themselves, they found strength and valor through their gatherings.
What started this movement in the eighteenth century? Did it just “occur” in the eighteenth century, or were there factors behind this development? We can answer these questions by looking at the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries across Europe.
In the sixteenth century, in 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus published his work On the Revolutions on the Celestial Spheres, which shook the Aristotelian foundations of Catholicism. Then, in 1616, the Catholic Church claimed heliocentrism to be heretical. With the advanced developments in the telescope in the early seventeenth century, Galileo discovered that the Earth is not the center of the universe and stated so in his published work Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems. Empirical science began to challenge the authority of the Catholic Church, which had a foothold in academia.
In the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century, John Locke published Essay Concerning Human Understanding and David Hume published A Treatise of Human Nature. These works stirred the empirical science movement. Men were meeting in cafes, pubs, and homes for discussions on politics, science, literature, and art. Women were inspired by this and began to form their own gatherings for similar discussions. Between watching the men gather and watching the church waver under the influence of empiricism, women viewed the usurping force of empirical science as an opportunity to pursue scholarship without fear of the church’s authority.
Empiricism inspired them to progress in science through their gatherings and discussions on science. Additionally, they also sought to gather with men in science as they pursued attendance at the men’s debating societies. However, even when included in these mixed-gendered debates, the men were eager to insult them publicly. Mary Thale points out that the 1752 Drury-Lane Journal noted that the only reason men included women in these mixed-gendered debates was that they were “shrieking, screaming, squeaking, squalling, halla-ing, and bawling for admittance.” Furthermore, even when men allowed the women to debate, these men saw their presence as an “incursion.”[1]
However, this did not dissuade eighteenth-century women. They began to recognize that they had human rights and inserted themselves into the male-dominated world. In science, they started by building personal laboratories, exhibiting their works, and publishing their discoveries even though society believed that the realms of discovery were reserved only for men.
The two areas of Europe that perpetuated the movement for women in science were Italy and France. In Italy, Laura Bassi and Maria Gaetana Agnesi obtained doctorates and positions within the university. These two women became the focal point of Italian academia. In 1731, at twenty years old, Bassi was the first woman in Europe granted a degree in science and the first woman to become a professor in an Italian university. For Agnesi, Pope Benedict XIV offered her the honorary chair in natural philosophy and mathematics at the University of Bologna in 1750.[2]
In France, mathematician Gabrielle Emilie le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du Châtelet wrote six works. Her story is unique, even today. She had multiple lovers, including Voltaire, and she loved to gamble. But she also loved mathematics.
Gabrielle published her first work Essay on the Nature and Spread of Fire, in 1737. Then, in 1740, she published Physical Institutions. Within two years of its publication, this work had been copied, translated into multiple languages, and distributed beyond Europe. The book looked at the physics and the mechanics of Newtonian physics. It was groundbreaking and created a debate within the scientific community, as many endeavored to understand Newtonian physics. She also wrote a French translation and commentary on Isaac Newton’s Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, which, at that time, was the foundation to understanding the fundamental laws of physics. However, in 1749 at the age of 42, shortly after giving birth to her fifth child, she died before she had a chance to publish it.
Nevertheless, this work was published posthumously in 1756, and it became the standard work on physics for France. Also, after her death, Denis Diderot and Jean le Rond d’Alembert wrote about her philosophies, mathematics, and scientific writings in their work known as Encyclopedie. As a result, du Chatelet, even after her death, inspired multiple women to venture into the world of math and science.
Then around 1760, while Italy was presenting “thinking” women as anomalies in the world of academia, women in France opened their home salons for other women to meet and discuss the sciences. These salons became a forum for educated French women to converse on many topics, including mathematics, physics, politics, philosophy, botany, and medicine.
Though many of these affluent women were patrons of the salons, these gatherings did not marginalize other women. Uneducated women who were not aristocrats could also attend and discuss the ideas of the Enlightenment.[3]
Soon, many of these gatherings were taking place across Britain. Some prominent women at these gatherings included the first British female historian, Catharine Macaulay, whose prominent book Letters on Education impacted education. In her book, Macaulay appealed to the development of public education for “all the subordinate classes of citizens” funded through tax collections.[4] Macaulay, along with several other women, became founding members of The Blue Stocking Society. This society encouraged other gatherings among women across Britain. Furthermore, the writings of Macaulay served as an inspiration to the author Mary Wollstonecraft who in 1792 published her work A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.[5] Wollstonecraft was the mother of Mary Shelley, the infamous author who wrote Frankenstein.
In the eighteenth century, the foundations of inspiration for women in science had been set. Though women were still not allowed into the laboratories and the universities, they found significant interest in all areas of science, including natural science, botany, physics, mathematics, and medicine. They would hold gallery events that would display their specimens and knowledge. They authored books. They persuaded the schools to let young girls attend classes. These women didn’t dabble; they worked hard to immerse themselves in science. Still, society viewed these women as infringing on a men’s world, as they were derided and insulted personally and publicly. Regardless, these women did not give up as they continued their work to make a change in science and society.[6]
In 1742 Countess Benigna von Zinzendorf established the first all-girls school in the United States. In 1764, Catherine the Great of Russia established institutions to allow girls to receive advanced education. In 1788, she established public education for elementary and high school girls. In 1787, Sweden and Denmark established universities that allowed women to go to school.
Around the world, women were inspired. America had horticulturalist Martha Daniel Logan, biologist Jane Colden, and inventor Catherine Greene. Antigua had Lydia Byam, who was a naturalist. In Britain, historian Catherine Macauley wrote about the history of science. Also, chemist Elizabeth Fulhame established a foothold in science in 1794. In China, Wang Zhenyi established herself as an astronomer in 1788. France brought us botanist Catherine Jeremie, anatomist Marie Marguerite Biheron, chemist Marie Lavoisier, and mathematicians Sophie Germain and Marie Ann Pigeon. In Germany, sisters Christine and Margaretha Kirch flourished in astronomy in 1716. Caroline Herschel, the astronomer, lived in England and Germany and became the first salaried scientist and won the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1828. In Italy, Cristina Roccati was known for her accomplishments in physics, Anna Morandi Manzolini was known for her work in medicine, and Maria Ardinghelli was known for her mathematics. In Spain, Maria Andrea Casamayor became known for her knowledge of mathematics as early as 1720. Maria Christina Bruhn flourished as an inventor in Sweden, and Elsa Beata Bunge succeeded as a botanist. In Switzerland, Anna Barbara Reinhart established herself in the world of mathematics. And in 1785, Jacoba van den Brande established the first all-female science academy in The Netherlands.
Though this list is long, it is not long enough. There are so many more worth noting who immersed themselves in science and inspired other women to join the wonderful world of discovery. The following attachment lists all the women in the eighteenth century that I have researched as of the writing of this article.
https://mathsciencehistory.com/Women18centuryscience.pdf
These women inspired other women. Germany’s Dorothea Erxleben even wrote about her inspirations. She had sent letters to Laura Bassi in Italy, telling her of her adoration for women in science, especially Bassi. Soon, one by one, women began to tread the trail for other women and science. That trail turned into a path that has become a well-paved freeway that invites women from every country, every race, and every prior gender to join the world of science.
According to the International Labor Organization and data gathered by Magdalena Szmigiera, in the country of Georgia, women encompass 56% of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)-based workforce. In the United States, 48% of the STEM-based workforce includes women. In the United Kingdom, women encompass 40% of the STEM-based workforce. In Austria, the percentage of women working in STEM is 35%.[7] Furthermore, the top five countries that employ women in STEM include Mongolia, Kiribati, Dominican Republic, and Cambodia. And though some of these numbers look promising, we still need more women in STEM. In Niger, only 10% of the STEM-based workforce includes women.
Additionally, among 110 countries, only 30% of female students choose to study STEM in higher education.[8] Furthermore, according to the National Science Foundation, only 34% of women work in the STEM workforce globally.[9] Thus, there is no one-to-one ratio between women and men in science.
But I am optimistic and believe that these numbers will continue to grow. We have our struggles, and sometimes we fall out of the STEM pipeline. However, the doors will only be open as long as we keep them open and as long as we continue to gather. Because when women in STEM gather, we share our most powerful attribute, which is knowledge. We empower, we inspire, and we motivate. Our history is rich with stimulating stories about women who have changed the world and have shown the world that when we gather, the world changes.
[1] Mary Thale, “The Case of the British Inquisition: Money and Women in Mid-Eighteenth-Century London Debating Societies,” Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies 31, no. 1 (1999): 33, https://doi.org/10.2307/4052815.
[2] Leigh Whaley, “Networks, Patronage and Women of Science during the Italian Enlightenment,” Early Modern Women 11, no. 1 (2016): 187.
[3] Dena Goodman, “Enlightenment Salons: The Convergence of Female and Philosophic Ambitions,” Eighteenth-Century Studies 22, no. 3 (1989): 329–50, https://doi.org/10.2307/2738891.
[4] Catharine Macaulay Graham, Letters on Education; with Observations on Religious and Metaphysical Subjects (Dublin: H. Chamberlaine, 1790), ix.
[5] Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Scott Library (London: Walter Scott, 1891), 143, https://books.google.com/books?id=K1ZYAAAAcAAJ.
[6] Margaret Carlyle, “Collecting the World in Her Boudoir: Women and Scientific Amateurism in Eighteenth-Century Paris,” Early Modern Women 11, no. 1 (2016): 149–61.
[7] International Labour Organization. “How Many Women Work in STEM?” Accessed March 10, 2022. https://ilostat.ilo.org/how-many-women-work-in-stem/.
[8] UNESCO and Irina Bokova, Cracking the Code: Girls’ and Women’s Education in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) (Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 2017), 20.
[9] Burke, Amy, and Abigail Okrent. “The STEM Labor Force of Today: Scientists, Engineers, and Skilled Technical Workers.” National Science Foundation — National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES), August 31, 2021. https://ncses.nsf.gov/pubs/nsb20212.