In the Renaissance, learned women went against the social grain. Educating women was really only seen in the upper class. Some fathers taught their daughters their trade, but even then it wasn't really very academic. Educated women were seen as neglecting their homemaking roles.
In the Enlightenment, however, these societal trends actually became enforced through restrictions. Women were not allowed to access certain instruments like microscopes. A microbiologist cannot get very far without her microscope. Even midwives had restrictions on the tools they could use.
As the study of science became more structured, there began to be right and wrong ways to do it. Somewhere along the line, being male became part of the "right" way.
As a woman pursuing a career in science in a world very concerned with social equality between men and women, it would be really easy to point to these restrictions as the birth of an oppression women continue to be hurt by. That, however, is not the point I would like to make.
I would like to be thrilled at how far we have come. I have access to a microscope. In fact, I have a favorite microscope that I race others in my class for. And I win. I draw pictures with bacteria on differential media plates:
My professor is a fantastic woman with a PhD. My teaching assistants in both of my science classes this semester are highly capable and confident female peers. I don't think women should at all be ashamed of their position or opportunities in science. In fact, with the men having such a head start, we should be very proud of how far we have come. The only restrictions we have now are the ones we put on ourselves.
Image Credit: Courtney Hilton
I am a CS Major, and I've seen in the TMCB little posters saying "The first computer programmer was a woman," which just adds to your point about the head start. In a time designed for male innovators to thrive, it was a woman who started something on which the entire world currently relies on more than it would like to admit. How cool is that?
ReplyDeleteWomen can obtain, process, comprehend, and apply information just as well as the most educated man. And as an added bonus, they can provide a different perspective than a a group of men could, furthering progressing all this information for the betterment of the world, not matter who receives it. Go women! (and men!)
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