WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
EFFECT ON WOMEN

• Little change in views of womens inferiority or
  restriction of womens roles

• In many ways, may have deepened inferiority
  restrictions

• But women participated in new scientific
  discoveries

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
HUMAN ANATOMY PHYSIOLOGY

• Persistence of ancient ideas

• Aristotle, Hippocrates Galen

• Four humors

• Misconceptions about female physiology

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
HUMAN ANATOMY PHYSIOLOGY

• New views discoveries

• Greater accuracy in understanding female anatomy

• Led to notion of pervasiveness of gender
  differences

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
WOMEN IN SCIENCE

• MARIA CUNITZ (1604-1664)

• Made important discoveries in astronomy

• Proficient in 7 languages, mathematics,
  medicine, history, music, painting poetry

Crater Cunitz on Venus
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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
WOMEN IN SCIENCE

• MARGARET CAVENDISH (1623-1673)

• Wrote 7 works of science philosophy

• Promoted individual rational capacity

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
WOMEN IN SCIENCE

• ANNA MARIA VAN SCHURMAN (1607-1678)

• Widely renowned for knowledge

• Promoted womens education for moral improvement

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
WOMEN IN SCIENCE

• EMILIE DU CHATELET, (1706-1749)

• First (and only) to translate Newtons work into
  French

• Published own original works building on
  Newtonian ideas

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
PERISTENCE OF OLD BELIEFS

• Demons, devils

• Witch Hunts

• SABBATS, ritual murder, cannibalism

• 15th - 18th centuries _at_ 100,000 executed for
  witchcraft

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
PERISTENCE OF OLD BELIEFS

• Witch Hunts

• 82 of accused women

• Accusations included strong sexual component

• Targets
• non-conforming women
• marginalized women
• midwives

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WOMEN AND THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION
PERISTENCE OF OLD BELIEFS

• Witch Hunts

• First conducted by religious authorities

• Process taken over by secular courts by 17th c.

• Used torture to extract confessions

Water torture
Witch chair