‘All your dreadful scientific things’: women, science and education in the years around 1900



Jones, Claire G ORCID: 0000-0001-9525-5820
(2017) ‘All your dreadful scientific things’: women, science and education in the years around 1900. History of Education, 46 (2). pp. 162-175.

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Abstract

In the years around 1900, more women were benefiting from a university education and using it as a pathway to acquiring research expertise and contributing to the development of scientific knowledge. Although numbers were small compared with men, it is clear that the idea of a female researcher was no longer an oddity. As illustrated by biographies and an analysis of three fictional texts featuring a female scientist, the increasing visibility of women did little to challenge the masculine colouring of science. A dissonance can be identified between femininity and science, even in settings sympathetic to a woman’s scientific activities. Particular unease is discernible when women are placed within the material culture of the laboratory. The problem of a woman embodying scientific authority, especially at a time when science was professionalising and institutionalising, adds an additional layer of complexity to discussions about women, science and education in these years.

Item Type: Article
Uncontrolled Keywords: 4 Quality Education
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 03 Aug 2017 11:18
Last Modified: 14 Mar 2024 21:33
DOI: 10.1080/0046760x.2016.1273406
Related URLs:
URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3008798