As a company that specialises in STEM educational products, we are proud to celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which fell on February 11th, this past weekend.
The majority of our team here at Orso Publishing are women who have studied STEM subjects to degree (or higher) level, and we are very grateful to have had the opportunity to do so. So to mark the occasion, we wanted to use this blog post as an opportunity to shine a spotlight on some of the lesser-known women superheroes of STEM, who led the way for the rest of us.
Tapputi (~1200 BC)
Proof that women have always found ways to contribute to science, Tapputi is the world’s first recorded chemist. An inscribed tablet found in Babylonian Mesopotamia dated around 1200 BCE refers to her as a perfume maker. Her process involved distilling and filtering flowers, oils and other resins. This is the earliest recorded reference to distillation in the world.
Laura Bassi (1711–1778)
Laura Bassi was the first woman to have a doctorate in science, and the second woman in the world to earn a Doctor of Philosophy degree. She was also the first salaried female teacher at a university, working at the University of Bologna. She was an important populariser of Newtonian mechanics in Italy.
She only published a few works due to her duties to the university, family problems, and also health issues brought on by the fact that, amongst all of this, she also found time for 8 pregnancies.
Despite this, her importance as a leader and mentor for other women in STEM cannot be overstated. In a 2018 study, 41% of girls with role models in STEM report an interest in STEM subjects, compared to 26% of girls without, showing just how crucial it is to make sure pioneers like Bassi get the praises they deserve.
Wang Zhenyi (1768–1797)
Wang Zhenyi was a scientist from the Qing dynasty, who self-studied astronomy, mathematics, geography, and medicine. She designed and conducted an experiment using lamps and mirrors to accurately explain solar eclipses, and the relationship between lunar and solar eclipses.
She greatly admired the mathematician Mei Wending (1633–1721) and worked to rewrite his book Principles of Calculation, using more accessible language, showing that she was also an early pioneer in promoting DEI. Her simplified version, The Musts of Calculation, simplified the principles of multiplication and division for beginner mathematicians.
Additionally, she was a champion of gender equality, writing in one of her poems:
It’s made to believe
Women are the same as Men;
Are you not convinced,
Daughters can also be heroic?
Josephine Silone Yates (1859–1912)
Josephine Silone Yates was the first black woman to head a college science department, and possibly the first black woman to hold a full professorship at any US college.
She was a champion for the rights of black women and worked as a correspondent for the first monthly magazine published by black women in the United States. Additionally, she served as the second president of the National Association of Colored Women (1900–1904).
While we are celebrating the pioneering women in STEM on this Day of Women and Girls in Science, we cannot ignore the importance of intersectionality in promoting and championing underrepresented groups. In the United States, women represent 38.9% of STEM undergraduates, which is a huge improvement on historical figures, but black women still only represent 2.9% of STEM undergraduates—showing that more work is always needed in bringing STEM education to as many people as possible, so that talents like Yates never miss the opportunities they deserve.
Finally, one woman in STEM who you probably have heard of:
Florence Nightingale (1820–1910)
While “The Lady with the Lamp” is very much a household name still, more than a century after her death, many people believe her only contribution to STEM was through her nursing work. However, it is important to know that Nightingale additionally produced pioneering work in the field of statistics. Much of this work centred around data visualisation and techniques such as polar area diagrams, which are still regularly used today.
Gender gaps vary significantly between different STEM subjects, as far more women go into the biological and medical sciences than maths and computer science. It is therefore important to remember Florence Nightingale as not only a brilliant nurse who changed the profession for the better, but also a powerful statistician, communicator, and wider force for change within STEM.
This is by no means an exhaustive list, but we hope you’ve been able to learn something new, and more importantly, we hope you’ve been inspired to continue spreading the word about the huge legacy and tradition of women in science.
And we’d love to hear about your forgotten heroes of STEM too—so please join the discussion on LinkedIn!
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