History

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In discussions about women's supposed innate ability (or more specifically, their lack thereof) in the areas of science and mathematics, people often bring up the canard of "Look at all the great discoveries in those fields - they were made by men. Women just aren't wired for that stuff."

Last year i wrote about women in mathematics who have made significant contributions to the field, but who seem to be ignored by people making the above sort of claims. Today i came across an article in The Guardian: "The scientist whom history forgot", about Emilie du Châtalet. The article notes:

Voltaire wasn't much of a scientist, but Du Châtelet was a skilled theoretician. Once, working secretly at night at the chateau over just one intense summer month, hushing servants to not spoil the surprise for Voltaire, she came up with insights on the nature of light that set the stage for the future discovery of photography, as well as of infrared radiation. It was a humiliating contrast for Voltaire, and especially grating when she began to probe into the still recent mathematical physics of Sir Isaac Newton.

Voltaire could not follow any of the maths, but on political grounds he wanted to believe that Newton was perfect in all respects. Du Châtelet, however, began a research programme that went beyond Newton and led to her glimpsing notions that would lead later researchers to the idea of conservation of energy fundamental to all subsequent physics. . . .

Almost immediately after Du Châtelet's death, sharp-tongued gossips began to disparage her work. Then, as her insights entered the scientific mainstream, the idea that a woman had created these thoughts was considered so odd that even scientists who did use her ideas came to forget who had originated them.

The question begs: How many times has this happened throughout history?
 

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[happyevilslosh.livejournal.com]

Maria Agnesi (1717-1799)

Agnesi was the eldest child of a wealth Milanese merchant, who encouraged his daughter to pursue scientific interests by hiring various distinguished professors to tutor her. By the age of 11 she was fluent in seven languages and in her teens was able to dispute important matters in such fields as mechanics, logic, zoology, and mineralogy with the best scholars of the day. Having studied the major mathematical works of the time, she began to instruct her younger brothers in the subject. She soon decided that her work, including material on algebra as well a complete treatise on the differential and integral calculus, should be published to benefit all Italian youth. This text was so clearly written that a committee of the French Academy, in authorizing its translation into French in 1749, noted that "there is no other book, in any language, which would enable a reader to penetrate as deeply, or as rapidly, into the fundamental concepts of analysis." And John Colson, the Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge in the middle of the eighteenth century, was so impressed with the book that he learned Italian for the sole purpose of translating the work into English so that British youth would have the same benefits as those of Italy.

The Pope, too, recognized Agnesi's talents and appointed her to the chair of mathematics at the University of Bologna, but Agnesi never assumed the position. Soon after her father's death in 1752 she withdrew from all scientific pursuits and spent the rest of her life in religious studies and social work among the poor.
-- Victor Katz, A History of Mathematics