Women in the History of Science brings together primary sources that highlight women’s involvement in scientific knowledge production around the world. Drawing on texts, images and objects, each primary source is accompanied by an explanatory text, questions to prompt discussion, and a bibliography to aid further research. Arranged by time period, covering 1200 BCE to the twenty-first century, and across 12 inclusive and far-reaching themes, this book is an invaluable companion to students and lecturers alike in exploring women’s history in the fields of science, technology, mathematics, medicine and culture.

While women are too often excluded from traditional narratives of the history of science, this book centres on the voices and experiences of women across a range of domains of knowledge. By questioning our understanding of what science is, where it happens, and who produces scientific knowledge, this book is an aid to liberating the curriculum within schools and universities.

Contents

List of figures
List of contributors
Preface
Acknowledgements
A note on pronouns

Introduction

Part I: Ancient ways of knowing (1200 BCE−900 CE)

1 Tappūtī-Bēlet-Ekallim (fl. 1200 BCE): A cuneiform tablet on Middle Assyrian perfumery (c. 1200 BCE) – Eduardo A. Escobar

2 Circe: An extract from Homer’s Odyssey (c. 900−800 BCE) – Andrew Gregory

3 Anonymous: Dialogue of the philosophers and Cleopatra (c. 600-700 CE) – Vincenzo Carlotta

4 The Southern Moche group: A ceramic vessel from coastal Peru (c. 200−900 CE) – Esme Loukota

5 Hypatia of Alexandria (c. 350−415 CE): Letter from Synesius of Cyrene to Paeonius (c. 355−415 CE) – Aiste Celkyte

Part II: Materials and manuscripts (900−1600 CE)

6 Ku‘ayba bt. Sa‘d al-Aslamiyya (fl. 620 CE): An extract from Kitab al-tabaqat al-kubra (Book of the Great Generations) (c. 600-900 CE) – Shazia Jagot

7 Mariam al-Ijli al-Asturlabi (c. tenth century CE): An extract from Fihrist Al-Nadim (Index) (c. 998 CE) – Shazia Jagot

8 Josian: Extracts from the Middle English Romance Bevis of Hampton (c. 1300 CE) – Hannah Bower

9 Mary, Queen of Scots (1542−1587 CE), Elizabeth Talbot (1527−1587 CE) and members of the Queen’s household: The Oxburgh Hangings (1569−1585 CE) – Sarah Cawthorne

Part III: Producing knowledge (1600−1700)

10 Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of Newcastle (1623–1673): Observations upon Experimental Philosophy, The Blazing World, and Poems and Fancies (1668) – Liza Blake

11 Mrs Mary Chantrell (fl. 1690): Book of receipts (1690−1693) – Lucy J. Havard

12 Sati-un-Nisa (d. 1646): Ma’asir-ul-Umara (Biography of the Notables) (1780) and photographs of the Mausoleum Saheli Burj (Female Companion’s Monument) (2020) – Mariam Sabri and Anurag Advani

13 Marie Crous (fl. 1641): Extracts from two of her mathematical works, the Advis de Marie Crous (1636) and Abbrégé recherché de Marie Crous (1641) – Giovanna Cifoletti and Jean-Marie Coquard

Part IV: Art, gender and knowledge (1700s)

Part V: Societies and networks of science (1660−1850s)

Part VI: Maps, scientific travel and colonialism (1800s)

Part VII: Representations of the natural world (1800s)

Part VIII: Women and Geology – A Case Study (1823-1919)

Part IX: Education, access and agency (1850−1905)

Part X: Women in the scientific sorkforce (1890−1950)

Part XI: Women and the institutions of science (1910−1950)

Part XII Embodied female experiences of science (1965−present)

Source: https://www.uclpress.co.uk/products/211143