Thevillageatheist - 05 January 2012 03:11 PM

Diane Jonas Locker - 05 January 2012 11:58 AM

I like the Thomas Paine idea—but how about a sculpture that incorporates both men and women?

That’s actually a great idea; people don’t have a mental picture of a woman atheist and they need one.  Any candidates you like? Margret Sanger, Emily Dickinson, etc? There’s plenty, but many people aren’t taught that women are just as capable of free thought as men!

These comments got me to thinking and looking stuff up on the web.  Now for starters I’ve always thought that a good mother is one of our most under appreciated treasures.  But, beyond that the amount of forgotten important history impacting women always amazes me.

Hell from what I understand Einstein’s first wife was a working partner without whom it’s questionable he could have fully formulated his revolutionary ideas, only to get swept under the rug so to speak as his reputation skyrocketed.

Here’s a few links to many interesting forgotten stories:

http://cwp.library.ucla.edu/
“An archive presenting and documenting some important and original contributions made before 1976 by 20th century women.”

A few oldies but goldies

http://www.adultlearn.com/women-in-science.html

Trotula of Salerno is considered the world’s first gynecologist. She lived in Salerno, Italy in the 11th century. At the School of Salerno, women were welcomed as students and instructors. She was known for teaching men about women’s health and is most well-known for writing the book The Diseases of Women. Learn more about Trotula of Salerno.

The first woman scientist whose writings still exist is Hildegard of Bingen. She lived between 1098 and 1179. She wrote botanical and medicinal texts, describing the natural world around her, including animals, plants, stones, and minerals. Learn more about Hildegard of Bingen.

The first woman doctor in the United States was Elizabeth Blackwell. She was a pioneer in educating women in medicine. She was an outcast in medical school and was even rejected after graduating. In 1851, she was refused lodging and office space to open an office, and she had to buy a house in order to practice medicine. In 1868, she opened a women’s medical college with her sister. Learn more about Elizabeth Blackwell.

Despite a system that feared and often despised them, they persevered and we should all be grateful for it.

http://www.webster.edu/~woolflm/women.html
“Women’s Intellectual Contributions to the Study of Mind and Society.”

Women such as Christine Ladd-Franklin, Ruth Fulton Benedict, and Ida B. Wells have traditionally been omitted from the histories of their disciplines. This webpage is designed to re-place women into the history of psychology, sociology, anthropology, and social work. Students, as part of an advanced seminar, examined and wrote about the lives of these women, their intellectual contributions, and the unique impact and special problems that being female had on their careers. This webpage represents the culmination of these students’ work.

Society of Experimental Psychology - Women were not admitted until after the death of the Society’s founder, E. B. Titchener, in 1929.

Doing their part to change the world - I notice not too many war mongers among this crowd… interesting.

http://www.britannica.com/women
300 Women Who Changed the World

Cool research!  Thanks.

Indeed, far fewer war mongers among great female thinkers—altho there are certainly more warrior-type women known in the more popularly promulgated annals of history (recorded primarily by men).

Let’s not forget the great Hypatia.

(Hildegard of Bingen was really more of a Catholic mystic and religious figure than a woman of science, BTW. The source you linked to is from a Catholic university. Check also the Wiki on Hildegard to get what I think is a more rounded picture of her importance).

dougsmith - 07 January 2012 06:10 AM

Let’s not forget the great Hypatia.

(Hildegard of Bingen was really more of a Catholic mystic and religious figure than a woman of science, BTW. The source you linked to is from a Catholic university. Check also the Wiki on Hildegard to get what I think is a more rounded picture of her importance).

Thanks for setting me straight Doug,
Pretty impressive write-up weighting in at thirty-three hundred words.

Seeing as I’m laid up after inguinal hernia repair surgery yesterday I read all of that.  Pretty dang interesting stuff… now weren’t these the dark ages?  Seems perhaps they weren’t so dark.  For those who don’t have the “liberty” of laying in bed all day, allow me to share some.

One of Hildegard’s better known works, Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), is a morality play.
{...}
In addition to the Ordo Virtutum Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum.
{...}
In addition to her music, Hildegard also wrote three books of visions, the first of which, her Scivias (“Know the Way”), was completed in 1151. Liber vitae meritorum (“Book of Life’s Merits”) and De operatione Dei (“Of God’s Activities”, also known as Liber divinorum operum, “Book of Divine Works”) followed. In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was about 75,
{...}
Aside from her books of visions, {therein lies another few hundred words worth of an interesting story} Hildegard also wrote her Physica, a text on the natural sciences, as well as Causae et Curae. Hildegard of Bingen was well known for her healing powers involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones.[31] In both texts Hildegard describes the natural world around her, including the cosmos, animals, plants, stones, and minerals. She combined these elements with a theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of humans.[32] She is particularly interested in the healing properties of plants, animals, and stones, though she also questions God’s effect on man’s health.[33]
{...}
Hildegard also invented an alternative alphabet. The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard’s use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated and abridged words.[6] Due to her inventions of words for her lyrics and a constructed script, many conlangers look upon her as a medieval precursor. Scholars believe that Hildegard used her Lingua Ignota to increase solidarity among her nuns.[35]
{...}
Hildegard communicated with popes such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV, statesmen such as Abbot Suger, German emperors such as Frederick I Barbarossa, and other notable figures such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced her work, at the behest of her abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148. Hildegard of Bingen’s correspondence with many people is an important element of her literary work because this is where we can see her speaking most directly to us.[39]
{...}
She traveled widely during her four preaching tours.[41]
{...}
Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the Roman canonization process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification. Hildegard’s name was nonetheless taken up in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the sixteenth century. Her feast day is 17 September. Numerous popes have referred to Hildegard as a saint, including Pope John Paul II[59] and Pope Benedict XVI.[60] Her canonization is scheduled to be completed before October 2012, when she will be declared a Doctor of the Church.[61] Hildegard’s Parish and Pilgrimage Church house the relics of Hildegard, including an altar encasing her remains, in Eibingen near Rüdesheim.
{...}
Between 70 and 80 compositions have survived, which is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers. Hildegard left behind over 100 letters, 72 songs, 70 poems, and 9 books
{...}

and now on to Hypatia. 

dougsmith - 07 January 2012 06:10 AM

Let’s not forget the great Hypatia.

Since I’ve gone this far and since my journey of discover regarding Hypatia was also quite fascinating allow me to add

Hypatia (ca. AD 350–370–March 415) was a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher in Roman Egypt who was the first notable woman in mathematics.[1] As head of the Platonist school at Alexandria, she also taught philosophy and astronomy.[2][3][4][5][6][7]

As a Neoplatonist philosopher, she belonged to the mathematic tradition of the Academy of Athens, as represented by Eudoxus of Cnidus;[8] she was of the intellectual school of the 3rd century thinker Plotinus, which encouraged logic and mathematical study in place of empirical enquiry and strongly encouraged law in place of nature.[1]
{...}
Many of the surviving works commonly attributed to Hypatia are believed to have been collaborative works with her father, Theon Alexandricus, this kind of authorial uncertainty being typical for female philosophers in Antiquity.[29]
{...}
A partial list of Hypatia’s works:
  •  A commentary on the 13-volume Arithmetica by Diophantus.[18]
  •  A commentary on the Conics of Apollonius.[18]
  •  Edited the existing version of Ptolemy’s Almagest.[30]
  •  Edited her father’s commentary on Euclid’s Elements[31]
  •  She wrote a text “The Astronomical Canon.”[18] (Possibly a new edition of Ptolemy’s Handy Tables.)[32]
{...}
Hypatia lived in Roman Egypt, and was murdered by a Christian mob which accused her of causing religious turmoil.[9] Kathleen Wilder proposes that the murder of Hypatia marked the end of Classical antiquity,[10][11] while Maria Dzielska and Christian Wildberg note that Hellenistic philosophy continued to flourish in the 5th and 6th centuries, and perhaps until the age of Justinian.[12][13]
{...}

{Jeez, those uppity Christians have been jerks since way back     }

OK, now back to catching up POI interviews  

Hypatia plays a role in Carl Sagan’s Cosmos, where he goes through her accomplishments as well as her torture and murder at the hands of the religious mob.

Another interesting woman of science is the screen actress Hedy Lamarr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Asaro    Catherine Asaro is quite interesting (and hot).  She’s more of an artist than scientist though.

dougsmith - 07 January 2012 12:35 PM

Another interesting woman of science is the screen actress Hedy Lamarr.

I just finished a biography about her called Hedy’s Folly, by Richard Rhodes. A very good read!

I found this biography about Florence Nightingale interesting, how she helped to establish the scientific credentials of nursing at a time before it was established, and that she did it with Mathematics. 

I would like to learn more about Hypatia.  Although, the rumors about what a crazed Christian mob did to Hypatia are so sad.

I was given Marie Curie’s writings from Prometheus Books for Christmas.  It looks like she’ll prove that radium is an element in the papers.  That should be interesting. 

Wow, Hedy Lamarr worked on spread spectrum (frequency hopping) and it was intended to US weaponry?  That’s certainly a surprising Hollywood story!  I wonder how she and a Hollywood composer wound up involved in military weapons?  Good one Doug.

mid atlantic - 07 January 2012 04:12 PM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Asaro    Catherine Asaro is quite interesting (and hot).  She’s more of an artist than scientist though.

Oh, I would say Catherine Asaro is a modern Renaissance Woman; PhD in chemical physics, mathematics, physics and chemistry teacher, University visiting professor, Government advisor, writer, novelist, ballet and jazz dancer, vocalist…. Pretty impressive all-rounder in fact.

Theflyingsorcerer.