2008 Woodie Awards
Panel addresses issues for women in science
By Kim Dishler
Rocket Editor-in-Chief
Issue date: 2/4/05 Section: News
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On Wednesday, Jane Fulton, former dean of the College of Health, Environment and Science; Mary Dominiecki, assistant professor of biology and Tamra Schiappa, assistant professor of geography, geology and the environment, directed the panel entitled "Women and Science: Challenges and Rewards."
Schiappa said barriers to women in science have always been present, even though their contributions go back thousands of years.
"Why is it in our science courses, you never hear about women?" she said. "Is it because women have not made any contributions worth noting? Or is it because men write the history books and never included them?"
Schiappa brought up many early woman scientists, including Hypatia, a mathematician, astronomer and philosopher from 370-415 A.D.
"Because of her expertise and contributions to science, men were offended by her work, so they pulled off her limbs and burned her," she said.
Another reason for the lack of known women scientists was that many females worked as partners with their husbands, such as Marie and Pierre Curie. The husband was often the only scientist who was credited, Schiappa said. She also said early women scientists had to perform near-miracles for their work to be considered important.
"If they weren't really good, if they didn't do outstanding, fabulous work, you'd never hear about them," Schiappa said. "They weren't in the history books because they weren't Curies, and they didn't create miracles."
Although times changed in the twentieth century, female scientists were still faced with discrimination. Schiappa said part of the reason was that women were not allowed to be educated and weren't even allowed sit in on lectures.
"Women used to have to sit in the halls to hear lectures," she said. "Talk about perseverance."
Schiappa said as a student, she never had a women professor in her geology classes and often noticed unfair treatment between herself and her male counterparts.
