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which he said that “Women should be educated just enough
to make themselves practically useful to their spouses, but
no further”. One early radical feminist, Catherine Beecher,
argued passionately that “Women should be accorded full
and equal educational rights, so long as it was recognized
that they would need extra time to do their hair”. 2 In astronomy, women were historically encouraged to work within the
field of solar observing. I heard a remarkable quote about
this during a talk at my local astronomical society, where it
was said that women should focus on solar work because
going out at night into the cold and dark would be detrimental to their delicate disposition! Luckily there have been
many women of strong enough dispositions over the years
to fight back against this kind of prejudice. As I’ve already
mentioned, Hypatia was a famous Astronomer during Roman
times. There are many more; Antonia Maury, born in 1866
was responsible for some incredible work on stellar spectra,
despite being actively discouraged by her supervisor. There
was Henrietta Swan Leavitt, born in 1868. Not only did she
devise a system for ascertaining the magnitude of stars on
photographic plates, she also studied Cepheid Variable stars,
and made the phenomenally important discovery that vari-
Born Caroline Lucretia Herschel
16 March 1750
Hanover
Died 9 January 1848 (aged 97)
Hanover
Nationality
German
Fields Astronomy
Known for
Discovery of comets
able stars have a period-luminosity ratio; this ratio allowed
Notable awards
her to calculate the absolute magnitude of stars for the first
Royal Astronomical Society (1828)
time. There are many more. But one of the most inspiring
ICY SCIENCE | WINTER 2013- 2014
Gold Medal of the
Prussian Gold Medal for Science (1846)