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Opportunities for women in early genetics

Abstract

Although women have long been engaged in science, their participation in large numbers was limited until they gained access to higher education in the last decades of the nineteenth century. The rediscovery of Mendel's work in 1900 coincided with the availability of a well trained female scientific workforce, and women entered the new field in significant numbers. Exploring their activities reveals much about the early development of the field that soon revolutionized biology, and about the role of gender in the social organization of science.

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Acknowledgements

Archival assistance is gratefully acknowledged. In England: A. Thomson, Newnham College, Cambridge; E. Leedham Greene, former Cambridge University Library archivist; G. Waller, Supervisor of the Manuscripts Room, Cambridge University Library; E. Stratton and K. Dick, former archivists, and M. Ambrose, acting archivist, the John Innes Centre, Norwich; and C. Harris, Librarian, Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library, Oxford University. In the United States: C. Clark and A. Dellureficio, archivists, and L. Pollack, Executive Director of Libraries and Archives, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Cold Spring Harbor; J. Strom, archivist, Carnegie Institution of Washington; J. Albright and P. King, Mount Holyoke College; N. Young, Smith College; and G. McCormick, Goucher College.

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FURTHER INFORMATION

History of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

History of the John Innes Horticultural Institute (now Centre)

Marsha L. Richmond's homepage

Richard L. Hauke, Edith Saunders and Carpel Polymorphism: A Scientific Failure

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Richmond, M. Opportunities for women in early genetics. Nat Rev Genet 8, 897–902 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrg2200

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