Abstract
ROBERT S. RICHARDSON has an article with the above title in Leaflet 181 of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, which shows the important part played by Women in the advancement of science. Madame Curie is cited first of all, but most of the examples are taken from astronomy. The Writer recalls with amusement the bewildered expression of visitors to the Lick Observatory on some public nights, when, instead of being greeted by an elderly professor, as they expected, they were given a lecture by a young woman. Several examples of the valuable contributions of women to the advancement of astronomy are cited. Madame Jean André Lepaute assisted Clairaut and Lalande in the computations of the perturbations of Halley's Comet by Jupiter and Saturn, and as a result of the work Clairaut was able to announce that the comet would pass perihelion on April 13, 1759. It actually passed perihelion 32 days before the time set by Clairaut; but as Uranus and Neptune were unknown at the time no account was taken of perturbations by these planets. Among other women of distinction reference is made to Caroline Herschel, Lady Huggins and Maria Mitchell, who assisted her father until she was forty-seven with routine computations in connexion with Government surveys for latitude and longitude. She was then appointed professor of astronomy and director of the Observatory at Vassar College, a position which she held until her death. In more recent times we have Miss Annie J. Cannon, Miss Antonia C. Maury and Miss Henrietta S. Leavitt. Not only have women made astronomy their career; they have also acted as patronesses, and notable among these are Mrs. Henry Draper, Miss Helen Snow, Miss Catherine Wolfe Bruce, Mrs. Alexander F. Morrison. Although nearly as many women as men do postgraduate work in astronomy with quite as much success, yet the total number of women engaged in astronomical research is small, because most of them become astronomers' wives instead of astronomers.
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Astronomy: the Distaff Side. Nature 154, 77 (1944). https://doi.org/10.1038/154077b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/154077b0