Women In Science

In class we have explored the reasons explaining where all the women were during the Scientific Revolution.  We read an article titled Gender, Science, and Modernity in Seventeenth-century England and discussed options from a lack of interest in the study to the idea that women were not educated at the time.  It is a possibility that many women were not interested in the study of science and therefore were not seen as having a role in the Scientific Revolution, but there are other reasons that seem more probable.  Women, at the time, were not given the same opportunity of education as men were.  Therefore, any woman who was interested in scientific theories and experiments were not respected because it was a consensus that they had no educational background to base their beliefs upon.  Men were also very controlling of women at the time so it is very likely that those who were interested in science were not permitted, by their husbands, to participate in the studies of the time.  There is another option, however.  Maybe women were present during the Scientific Revolution.  It is possible that women spoke through the men around them to get their points of view across about scientific theories.  All of the above possibilities have crossed my mind when discussing this topic in class.  However, while reading an article from The Ithacan, another idea was presented. 

Maybe women biologically don’t have the same capabilities as men when it comes to the study of science or math.  This article, written by a guest speaker at a conference at Harvard University where President Lawrence Summers spoke, discusses Summers’ views about the topic.  Summers thinks that it is probable that women don’t have the genetic abilities when it comes to science and math.  However, there is no solid evidence to prove Summers’ theory.  There is evidence though that fewer women are attracted to or interested in the studies of math and science than men.  This brings us back to one of my initial thoughts which was that women were simply not interested in the study of science during the Scientific Revolution.