Though today over half of medical school graduates are women, it hasn’t been a level playing field for very long. Women have had to struggle and fight hard for the right to study and practice medicine, and Black women in America have had to face the double barriers of racism and sexism in this struggle. […]
The Matilda Effect: Invisible Women in Science
Women have made contributions to science throughout history, despite facing a variety of challenges due to their gender. One such challenge, which affects the acknowledgment of women’s scientific achievements, is called the Matilda Effect. In order to fully appreciate the accomplishments of women in science and the barriers they have faced, it’s important to understand […]
5 Famous Women Atheists In History
Throughout history, women have challenged societal norms and religious doctrines. This list highlights some influential women throughout the centuries who defied expectations and openly identified as atheists, making significant contributions in their respective fields. 1. Hypatia (c. 350 – 415 AD) Hypatia of Alexandria was a brilliant mathematician, astronomer, and philosopher who lived in late […]
Mary Anning: Female Fossil Finder
Mary Anning is now known as a pioneer in fossil collecting and discovery; setting the course for British paleontology as we know it today.
Gertrude B. Elion: Groundbreaking Chemist Who Helped Create the AIDS Drug
Gertrude B. Elion was a Nobel Prize winning biochemist who developed the first immunosuppressive drug and the first successful antiviral drug.
Hypatia of Alexandria, female philosopher, astronomer and mathematician
Hypatia of Alexandria was a renowned mathematician, female philosopher and astronomer who became an academic at the University of Alexandria.
Mary Bunting, Champion of Women’s Education
Mary I. Bunting was the Rutgers dean who led the fight for coeducation at the United States’ most prestigious universities. The program she created in 1958 to support a community of mature women lives on at Douglass Residential College in her name. When Mary Bunting began her academic career in 1937, women like her had limited […]
Margaret Hamilton, the Woman Behind the Moon Landing
Nearly fifty years ago, history was made when Neil Armstrong took his famous first small step on the surface of the moon. But, as they say, behind every great man is a woman, and for Armstrong that woman was Margaret Hamilton, the programmer who invented the software that made the moon landing possible, not to […]
Admiral “Amazing Grace” Hopper, pioneering computer programmer
United States Navy Admiral Grace Hopper (1906–1992) was one of the first programmers in the history of computers. Her belief that programming languages should be as easily understood as English was highly influential on the development of one of the first programming languages called COBOL. It is largely due to Grace Hopper’s influence that programmers […]
Katharine McCormick, biologist & millionaire philanthropist
Katharine Dexter McCormick is a name that every woman today should know, because your life would probably be very different today if it wasn’t for her. Katharine funded what The New York Times called the “most sweeping sociomedical revolution in history. . . [whose] impact on the United States and other nations [is] almost too […]