Why Are There So Few Women in the History of Science?

Women have contributed to science and technology throughout history, yet it often takes specialized skills and new ways of seeing to find the scientific work done by women. Sometimes women were given codenames when research was published, a 17th-century strategy to protect their modesty. Sometimes tedious lab work was celebrated as “heroic” when done by men and dismissed as “drudgery” when done by women. Or scientific organizations might divide up the labor of science, assigning some tasks to women and other tasks to men, and then not talk about the women’s roles—as in the story of Hidden Figures. This talk will explore how we can recover the history of women in science, and why we must do it now.

 

This online event is hosted by Swarthmore Public Library.

 

About the Speaker

Roger Turner is a historian and storyteller. His particular scholarly expertise is in 20th-century atmospheric science, scientific instruments, and environmental monitoring.

 

At the Science History Institute, Roger helped launch the student role-playing game Science Matters: The Case of Rare Earth Elements, worked on the film The Instrumental Chemist, developed the playful online experience Instruments of Change, and contributes to museum exhibits. He wrote and curated Mechanochemistry: The Science of Crush for Google Arts & Culture.