Carrie Meurdrac Response To Women Scientists Dbq

During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe, many women were not only actively participating in scientific research, but they were making extraordinary breakthroughs that men before them had not been able to accomplish. This resulted in many different reactions and responses towards women scientists. First, many men thought that women had no place in science at all, and that women should be restricted to work in the household. Secondly, many women had to go against the societal norms at the time, and take part in higher education. Thirdly, many heated arguments took place between people who disagreed. And lastly, there were some people who supported the idea of women scientists. Many men did not believe that women should have

Marie Meurdrac was a French scientist who wrote Chemistry Simplified for Women. In the foreword of this book, she stated that she herself thought that it was not a lady’s job to teach. But instead of remaining silent, she broke through the social barriers and decided that the minds of men and women were equal, and published her book (Doc 2). Another woman who derived from societal norms and continued to study science was Marie Thiroux d’Acronville, a French anatomical illustrator who wrote Thoughts on Literature, Morals, and Physics. She wrote in the preface of her book that women should not study medicine and astronomy. This is somewhat contradictory to her own studies because in her book she wrote about physics (Doc 12). Nevertheless, both d’Acronville and Meurdrac were women scientists at a time in which women in science were frowned upon by society at the

Johann Eberti described German astronomer Marie Cunitz as so committed to her work that she almost always stayed up all night in order to observe the stars. As a result, she was so tired that she slept most of the day, resulting in the neglect of her household (Doc 1). She was not the only woman who dove passionately into science. Maria Sibylla Merian, a German entomologist, described her love for insects in her 1679 Wonderful Metamorphoses and Special Nourishment of Caterpillars. She wrote that she had been studying entomology since she was a kid. In order to advance her research, she admitted to withdrawing from society in order to spend every possible moment studying insects (Doc 5). This is another example of how some of the women in science fields, worked as hard as they could. Because they knew if they did not, then they may not be able to continue their research in their respective fields. She even learned how to draw so that she might better record her findings. While men have always been able to study science, it was new to women. Once they got the opportunity, women may have felt as though they had something to prove. This desire to show the world that they could succeed as scientists, plus an almost unparalleled interest in science, led to very passionate women scientists. Gottfried Leibniz, a German mathematician and philosopher, was