The UK's Lost Women of Science

Very interesting article in the Guardian today about women scientists' contributions to the Royal Society (the UK's version of the National Academy).

And coincidentally, it's quite connected to the paper I'm writing about Ellen Swallow Richards, the under-appreciated scientist who founded the field of ecology in the early Progressive Era. She also did a billion other things that have led to the modern fields of public health, home economics, and sociology, as well as ardently promoting women's education in science. She helped lead an empirical study of whether, in fact, higher education damages a woman's reproductive capacity (it doesn't... collective sigh of relief). One of her instructors at Vassar College was Maria Mitchell, an astronomer, who is highlighted in the Guardian article.

Just thinking about how difficult it was for women to gain recognition (or even access to higher education) 100 years ago... I feel that we owe a lot to women like Ellen Richards.