How Anna Atkins blazed a garden path for women to sneak into science
Many women in science today are still coming into their fields through the garden gate opened by English botanist and photographer Anna Atkins, subject of today鈥檚 Google Doodle, who may have been the first person to publish a book illustrated with photographic images.
Today the聽聽celebrates what would have been Ms. Atkins's 216th birthday.
鈥淲hile there鈥檚 been a huge change in science where women are concerned, it all started with botany and women like Anna Atkins,鈥� , a research scientist at the Smithsonian Institution鈥檚 National Museum of Natural History鈥檚 Botany Department. 鈥淪omebody鈥檚 got to break the ice for women in science, and frequently it鈥檚 in botany.鈥�
Atkins was a trowelblazer, not just an accomplished scientific illustrator, but perhaps, some say, the first woman to create a photograph.
Born in 1799, Atkins began her career as an assistant to her father, the zoologist and chemist聽John Children.
鈥淭rained as a botanist, Anna Atkins developed an interest in photography as a means of recording botanical specimens for a scientific reference book, British Algae: Cyanotype Impression,鈥� notes the聽听飞别产蝉颈迟别.
Atkins, much like celebrated botanical illustrator聽Maria Sibylla Merian聽(1647鈥�1717) before her, had a passion for the sciences at a time when women were relegated to amateur status by the male-dominated scientific community.
Both Atkins and Merian paved the way for Katherine Esau (born 1898) a botanist who became the 5th woman inducted to the National Academy of Sciences
鈥淲hen I started here [at the Smithsonian] 33 years ago I was one of only two women in the entire building,鈥� Dr. Funk says. 鈥淭oday more than half the staff are women. However, one thing has not changed since the days of Anna Atkins and that is that every major botanical garden in the world is still run by a man. No woman has ever been the director of a major botanical garden.鈥�
In an email interview with the Monitor,聽Natural History Museum London聽bioarchaeologist聽writes, 鈥淭here is a long tradition of women being involved in the sciences without necessarily having the recognition of being scientists themselves.鈥�
Dr. Hassett points out that many of the positions open to women in science in the past would have聽been restricted to entry-level or 鈥渢echnician type jobs, despite the obvious expertise required illustration and cataloging of finds have both been standard positions for women in many of the Earth聽sciences.鈥�
鈥淢any women's contributions are acknowledged informally, and appear in the historical record only in聽the forewards and dedications to academic publications by spouses or supervisors,鈥� Hassett writes.
Today, according to Hassett, 鈥淲hile the sciences still struggle to recruit and retain women, it is possible to identify successful female scientists at all career stages, in many different disciplines.鈥�
Last week Hassett and the female scientists' organization she helps run, T, made global news with a Twitter campaign hashtagged聽#InMyShoes聽to help a little girl in England convince Clarks Shoe company to expand its traditional selection of girls shoes to include聽ones with dinosaurs on them.
Asked about the campaign, and of the irony of flowers being both a place of deep roots for women in science and an image often rejected as perhaps too girly for modern female scientists, Hassett writes, 鈥淚 suppose that must depend on what is considered 'science'; while botany is obviously a science I imagine that flowers per se don't stir up the same association with the amorphous entity that is 'science' in the same way dinosaurs do. Presumably because dinosaurs are rather thinner on the ground...鈥�
Norfolk State University鈥檚 Research Director and STEM educator says that women still struggle against a male-dominated scientific community to advance and be recognized.
"While women may have gained advances in holding higher positions and gaining recognition in the sciences since Anna Atkins鈥� time, we are making greater family sacrifices to get them," says Dr. Okpodu. She says, 鈥淢en in science today often tell me they see a woman in science having a child as inhibiting her success. If you want a child you're not seen as being serious about being a scientist since much of your work coincides with your child-bearing years."
"One thing was that nobody would dream of making a woman in Atkins's day feel was that she couldn鈥檛 or shouldn鈥檛 be a mother because she wanted to also make a contribution to science,鈥漁kpodu concludes. "So how far have we come really? Today's a good day to think about that."
