Women in History

Women in History

One of my readers who graduated from MIT pointed me to this interesting reminder that, in spite of social barriers, women were in the sciences in the 19th century:

Ellen Henrietta Swallow Richards (1842-1911) was the first woman admitted to MIT, receiving her S.B. degree in 1873 (the first graduating class of MIT was 1868). She entered in 1871, one of 90 first year students, and had already graduated with the first class of Vassar College (1870). The title of her thesis was "Notes on Some Sulpharsenites and Sulphantimonites from Colorado." In 1875 she appealed to the Women's Education Association of Boston for help in establishing a laboratory at MIT for the instruction of women in chemistry. The Women's Laboratory opened in 1876 with Professor John M. Ordway in charge, assisted by Richards. She held the position of instructor in chemistry and mineralogy in the Women's Laboratory until it closed in 1883. From 1884 to her death in 1911, Richards was instructor in sanitary chemistry at MIT.

Henrietta Swan Leavitt was the astronomer who discovered the relationship between Cepheid variable star period and absolute brightness, which made it possible to determine the distance to galaxies. She died in 1921.

Extraordinary women in American history have managed to transcend sex-based obstacles, just as extraordinary poor Americans have managed to transcend class-based obstacles. (If they were barriers, you couldn't get past them.)