Women have not exactly been over-represented in science. So we periodically trot out Madame Curie and Barbara McClintock (Barbara who you ask?) and that's about it, right?
In truth, I've been down this path before in a non-Science Sunday Fun piece - Hearing the Mice Sing - Science, Race, and Gender. And in fact, we have at least 4000 years of records of women in science.
In fact, we have at least 4000 years of records of women in science.
First, take note of the fact that we women - just as did our foremothers - rely on and use science all the time in our traditional roles. Cooking - and especially baking and preserving - depends on an interaction of chemistry, biology, and physics. Consider what science can do to the humble egg. And for more on science and cooking look here or here and here.
And women have a long history as healers, including in the Americas. Look here for more links on women as healers. Efforts are afoot to encourage more women to once again take up a prominent role in medicine.
The first woman graduated from a US medical school in 1849 - Elizabeth Blackwell. She was a member of the Blackwell family that included suffragists, activists, and more.
For more on women and medicine, check out this link to the NIH exhibit on the contributions of women to medicine.
Discover the many ways that women have influenced and enhanced the practice of medicine. The individuals featured here provide an intriguing glimpse of the broader community of women doctors who are making a difference. The National Library of Medicine is pleased to present this exhibition honoring the lives and accomplishments of these women in the hope of inspiring a new generation of medical pioneers.
Women and Math
Take that Larry Summers. I bet he didn't know that Dr. Sarah Greenwald
maintains a SimpsonsMath website - which includes Girls Just Want to Have Sums and more links on women and math.
And did you know that Winnie from the Wonder Years - Danica McKellar is a mathematician of some note? link here and here.
Thanks to Agnes Scott College in Atlanta, Georgia which has put together a website I know that. The site's purpose is "to illustrate the numerous achievements of women in the field of mathematics. The site includes biographies and links to resources about women in mathematics. In a sidebar it has links to women born and died on today's date. Biographies of women mathematicians go back to the 6th c. B.C.E.
And here is a new study on women's performance in math:
Women perform differently on math tests depending on whether they believe math-related gender differences are determined by genetic or social differences, according to University of British Columbia researchers.
In a paper published in today’s issue of Science magazine, UBC investigators Ilan Dar-Nimrod and Steven Heine explore how women’s math performance is affected by stereotypes that link female underachievement to either genetic or experiential causes.
More than just Madame Curie
Consider Gerty Cori. Not exactly a household name. She shared a Nobel Prize with her huband in 1947 for research into insulin. More links here.
Female suicide bombers
One nontraditional role women are taking up is that of suicide bomber. It seems antithetical to everything we think we understand about women. For a new study female suicide bombers, look here and scroll down to paper number 17 - We Few, We Happy Few, We Band of Brothers (And Occasional Sister): the Dynamics of Suicide Terrorism. Or as Science Magazine reported:
The motivations of suicide bombers differ depending on their sex, says a researcher at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Psychiatrist J. Anderson Thomson Jr. says that whereas males see themselves as part of a larger entity, females seem more propelled by individual motives.
Male suicide attackers are not lone losers but members of tightly knit bands bound by ties of rage and religion. Their behavior is consistent with our ancient history of "male-bonded coalitionary violence," involving "lethal raids" practiced by small bands against their enemies, argues Thomson. But women do not fit this pattern. In a paper delivered at the biennial meeting of the International Society for Human Ethology in Detroit, Michigan, last month, Thomson mentioned Chechen, Palestinian, and Hindu female suicide terrorists who had been shunned for adultery or because they had been raped, divorced because of infertility, or whose husbands or brothers had been murdered by the enemy. In these cases, he asserts, the motives have more to do with shame or personal revenge than a larger cause. And rather than being motivated by bonds with their fellows, Thompson added, all these women were "recruited, trained, directed, or in some manner controlled by men."
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