Forgotten women of science point the way to women's potential

Emile du Chalet

Judith Martin - "Women have contributed to science from its earliest
days, but as contributors they have generally not been acknowledged." --
Wikipedia,   This is a statement educators in the sciences want to change.

Part 2 is a selection from a three-part series on women in science, in response to educator's concern about women in science and to allow the public, especially young women interested in science and their parents and advocates, that there have been truly important women pioneers.

While women are reflected in greater and greater numbers in social sciences, literature, history, law and even medicine, as well as other disciplines, the fact remains women are under-represented in the sciences.  

One way to encourage young women to enter science, is to highlight the accomplishments of the women who have gone before, as history's reflections provide. 

Gabrielle Emilie Le Tonnelier de Breteuil, marquise du
Chatelet (17 December 1706, Paris - 10 September 1749, Luneville),  was known for short as Emilie du Chatelet, a
one-time girlfriend of the man of letters known as Voltaire. -- David Bodanis,
"The scientist that history forgot". 

According Wikipedia, Emilie du Chatelet "was a French
mathematician, physicist, and author during the Age of Enlightenment. Her
crowning achievement is considered to be her translation and commentary on
Isaac Newton's Work Principa Mathematica; published in 1759, ten years after
her death, here is still the standard translation in French."

Voltaire, one of her lovers, declared in a letter to his
friend King Frederick II of Prussia that du Chatelet was "a great man
whose only fault was being a woman". -- Wkikipedia. 

The educational TV program NOVA devoted a whole episode of a
series, mostly about forgotten women of science, to Emilie du Chatelet. She
could ride horses like a jockey (in full skirts), sword fight like a military
officer, and beat even kings and queens at the card table.  Away from the desk and the pen, she was known
to have led a very wild life. 

The program also mentioned in passing that her commentary on
Newton's Principa revolutionized the concept of Calculus (capitalized for
emphasis). 

It is only since the advent of the internet that more
websites have begun to show up listing forgotten women of science. Decades ago,
Madame Curie's name was practically the only name on such a list. Sometimes
Mary Anning, a paleontologist from English, was acknowledged as well. 

Still, if the term "calculus" is put in as a
search term on the internet, the postings at the websites show a wonderful
gallery of pictures of Sir Isaac Newton and his intellectual coterie. Sometimes
there is a mention of Emilie du Chatelet in the footnotes, sometimes not. 

A very sympathetic survey of "women in science"
can be found through the Wikipedia. There, finally, there is a beginning
overview of how women have played a major part, not merely a supporting role,
in the development of math and science. They played these parts even when -- as
described in Part 1 of this series -- chauvinistic Victorian male attitudes
towards women in general were enough to keep women in the United States from
doing more in math and science than to
learn what they could and teach it to children. 

As spurred on by texts like Our Bodies, Ourselves, the
Women's Liberation movement caused the academic world to scurry around and
hurry up to acknowledge that women were more than just fitted to be the bearers
of babies and the nurturers of children.
A favorite put-down about why women should not ride horses astride was,
"They will damage their reproductive organs.' 

Emile du Chatelet no doubt laughed at such a comment in her
day. After all, she did ride horses astride, in full skirts nonetheless! And
she did give birth to at least two children; the birth of the last one at age
40 killed her. 

Continued in Part 3 of 3: The Lady Rocket Scientist Next

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