History hasn’t always been kind to women. They were denied education. Those that were ‘lucky’ enough to be informally educated couldn’t enter university seminars; those that were formally educated weren’t considered equal to their male peers.

1. Celebrating women in science
History hasn’t always been kind to women. They were denied education. Those that were
‘lucky’ enough to be informally educated couldn’t enter university seminars; those that
were formally educated weren’t considered equal to their male peers. Many bold women
were subdued, or worse–burned ‘for being witches’! Having an opinion was
blasphemous, let alone having an intellectual and a scientific one at that. Despite such
dark times, many women managed to rise above society’s idea of what they’re capable
of.
For centuries, womankind has had to strive doubly hard to make itself heard and
accepted. Some women not only managed to be heard and accepted, but also respected. If
making a mark in a male-dominated world was hard, then stepping into the field of
science was no less than entering the dragon’s lair, right until the early 20th
century. And
yet, many commendable women did just that, contributing significantly to the way the
world works today. Soulveda commemorates these scientists on the occasion of
International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
Hedy Lamarr

2. This 20th
-century woman wasn’t just a pretty actress; she was an inventor. Self-taught
though she was, Lamarr was known to dabble in technology; she used to call it ‘tinkering
hobbies’. Improvising traffic stoplight and modifying the wing design to make planes fly
faster were among the things she ‘tinkered’ with. During the World War II in 1942,
Lamarr, with the help of her friend and pianist George Antheil, actually developed a
secret communication system for the US government. While the US Navy couldn’t use
inventions made outside of the military, Lamarr’s technology eventually got incorporated
into Bluetooth, wi-fi and CDMA.
Anandi Gopalrao Joshi
Joshi was the first Indian woman to ever graduate with a degree in medicine from the
United States. People also say that she was the first Indian woman to even set foot on
American soil. What’s remarkable about Joshi was that she earned a Doctor of Medicine
(MD) degree in 1886, when most girls in India weren’t formally educated. Unfortunately,
Joshi died of tuberculosis in 1887, before she could practise medicine and be a physician.
The Second World War saw many English women choosing
more public lives, many with professions. One such smart
young woman was Joan Clarke, a cryptanalyst and
numismatist…
Émilie du Châtelet
This early 18th
-century French physicist was the first scientist to appreciate the
significance of kinetic energy, as opposed to momentum. She translated Isaac
Newton’s Principia from Latin to French and wrote a compelling commentary with it.
She made an additional postulate on conservation law of kinetic energy, thereby
contributing to Newtonian Mechanics. So profound was her contribution that she was
widely recognised and respected amongst the intellectual circles of her time.
Joan Clarke
The Second World War saw many English women choosing more public lives, many
with professions. One such smart young woman was Joan Clarke, a cryptanalyst and
numismatist for the English government. Cryptology was largely male-dominated at the
time, but as a code-breaker at Bletchley Park during the war, Clarke decrypted Nazi
Germany’s secret communications. Her work earned her several awards and citations; she
was even appointed as a member of the Order of the British Empire, an order of chivalry.
Laura Bassi

3. Bassi, an 18th
century Italian physicist and academic, earned a doctoral degree from the
University of Bologna in 1732. At the time, it was only the second degree ever formally
bestowed on a woman by a university. She is also said to have been the first woman to
have been formally educated in the field of science. Like Émilie du Châtelet, Bassi too
was instrumental in spreading the study of Newtonian Mechanics far and wide in Italy.
Maria Margarethe Kirch
Kirch was a renowned German astronomer in the late 17th
century and early 18th
century.
She was the first woman to ever discover a previously unknown comet C/1702 H1, in
1702. Kirch was also instrumental in creating calendars and almanacs that were helpful in
sea navigation. As her husband Gottfried Kirch’s study partner, Maria Kirch was on par
with other astronomers of her time, if not better. Yet, upon her husband’s death, she
wasn’t allowed to take his place as an astronomer at the Royal Academy of Sciences.
When the academy’s chosen male alternative failed miserably at his duties, Maria Kirch
was hired in his stead. Her work eventually won her the Gold medal of Royal Academy
of Sciences, Berlin, in 1709.
Ada Lovelace is credited with being the first
computer programmer and also the first to
understand the ‘computing machine’ and its
potential applications.
Maria Gaetana Agnesi
This 18th
-century Italian mathematician was the first woman to be appointed as a
mathematics professor at a university. She was also the first to write a mathematics
handbook that discussed both integral and differential calculus. Known as the first
woman to ever have achieved such a repute in the field of mathematics, Agnesi has an
asteroid, a Venusian crater and a mathematical curve named after her.
Eva Ekeblad
Ekebald was an 18th
-century Swedish agronomist, who’s credited with discovering a
method to make alcohol and flour from potatoes. Her discovery was instrumental in
reducing Sweden’s famine in 1746. With that, she became the first ever female honorary
member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1748. Ekebald also discovered
how to bleach cotton textile and yarn with soap. She also found a way to use potato flour
in cosmetics as a replacement for other harmful chemicals.

4. Ada Lovelace
Augusta Ada King-Noel, Countess of Lovelace, better known as Ada Lovelace, was a
19th
-century English mathematician and writer. Lovelace, who called herself an ‘analyst’,
and often described her approach as ‘poetical science’, made notes on Charles Babbage’s
early version of a computing machine. In her notes, she made observations of how the
society might relate to such technology as a ‘collaborative tool’. She is credited with
being the first computer programmer and also the first to understand the ‘computing
machine’ and its potential applications. Without her observations and explanations,
Babbage’s work might never have received any attention. Lovelace even gave his
‘Analytical Engine’ an algorithm to compute Bernoulli numbers.
Lise Meitner
Meitner was a 20th
-century Austrian-Swedish nuclear physicist who led a group of
scientists responsible for discovering the nuclear fission of uranium. This discovery later
became the basis for the nuclear weapons developed by the US during World War II. The
1944 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the nuclear fission discovery went only to her
colleague and co-head Otto Hahn, despite Meitner’s tremendous contribution. However,
she did win various other awards and honours later in life. Meitner was also the first
woman to be hired as a physics professor by a university in Germany.