Visualizing Women Scientists in the APS Collections

Women in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries participated in science: a field that was sometimes open to them, but more often than not structural barriers inhibited their full participation. While some women scientists received notoriety and fame, there are many who have been historically marginalized and lost within the archival record. Visualizing Women in Science uses the collections of the American Philosophical Society to recover biographies and information about women in science not previously known. The network visualization at the heart of the project illustrates networks that were essential to sustaining women’s work in science.

ABOUT WOMEN IN SCIENCE AT THE APS

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Women in the 19th and 20th centuries participated in science, a field that was sometimes open to them, but more often than not, was exclusionary.1Some women scientists received notoriety and fame as women “firsts”—the first to attend a specific university, to work in a certain lab, or win a Nobel prize in science.2 These women “firsts,” such as Marie Curie, Florence Sabin, Barbara McClintock and others became well known in their time and are now often-cited heroines of the history of science. Their stories are powerful and significant; however, they are not the only stories of women in science.

Women “firsts” often relied on a wider network of women and men, friends and family, to support them. By triangulating the stories of other women scientists who corresponded with well-known women of science, this project seeks to recover biographies and information about women in science not previously known, as well as illustrate networks that were essential to sustaining women’s work in science.

Barriers to Women’s Participation

Although women have been active in science since early recorded history, structural barriers inhibited their full participation.3 Not only were women’s contributions to science dismissed on account of their gender and their presence unwelcome in the cultures of certain disciplines, administrative and legal policies prevented them from pursuing active careers in science.4 These included:

• Policies barring women from higher education;
• Anti-nepotism rules that prevented married women from receiving a salary at the same institution as their husbands;
• The relegation of women to “lesser” assistant positions, such as “computers” who did all of the calculations but received none of the credit;
• The marginalization of fields where women did find a place to practice science (e.g. home economics).