Women and Enlightenment Science

In Our Time: Science

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2010

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the role played by women in Enlightenment science. During the eighteenth century the opportunities for women to gain a knowledge of science were minimal. Universities and other institutions devoted to research were the preserve of men. Yet many important contributions to the science of the Enlightenment were made by women. These ranged from major breakthroughs like those of the British astronomer Caroline Herschel, the first woman to discover a comet, to important translations of scientific literature such as Emilie du Chatelet's French version of Newton's Principia - and all social classes were involved, from the aristocratic amateur botanists to the women artisans who worked in London's workshops manufacturing scientific instruments. The image above, of Emilie du Chatelet, is attributed to Maurice Quentin de La Tour. With Patricia Fara Senior Tutor at Clare College, University of Cambridge Karen O'Brien Professor of English at the University of Warwick Judith Hawley Professor of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway, University of London Producer: Thomas Morris.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thanks for downloading the In Our Time podcast. For more details about In Our Time and for our terms of use, please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:09.0	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, in 1762, one of the leading thinkers of the Enlightenment of the French philosopher
0:16.6	Jean-Jacruseau wrote, the education of women should always be relative to that of men, to please, to be useful to us, to make us love
0:25.2	and esteem them, to educate us when young, to take care of us when grown up, to advise and
0:30.3	consolers, to render our lives easy and agreeable. These are the duties of women at all
0:35.0	times and what they should be taught in their infancy.
0:39.2	Such dismissive attitudes to female education were widespread in Europe throughout the 17th and 18th century.
0:45.2	This was an age which saw the emergence of modern scientific disciplines and a revolution in
0:49.8	our understanding of the universe and our place within it. However, despite the
0:54.0	disadvantages they faced, a number of women made important contributions to
0:57.9	scientific progress in the Enlightenment in fields including astronomy, chemistry, medicine and botany achievements which hold their place today.
1:06.3	With me to discuss the role played by women in Enlightenment Science,
1:09.7	a Patricia Farah, Senior Tutor of Claire College, University of Cambridge, Judith Hawley, Professor
1:16.0	of 18th Century Literature at Royal Holloway University of London, and Karen O'Brien, Professor
1:21.2	of English at the University of Warwick. Karen O'Brien, Professor of English at the University of Warwick.
1:23.3	Karen O'Brien, let's start off by defining what we mean by the Enlightenment.
1:28.6	The Enlightenment was a movement of ideas, principally focused in Europe and in North America
1:34.5	which ran roughly from the late 17th century to the end of the 18th century in Europe and
1:39.3	North America and it was concerned with the idea of free intellectual inquiry
1:44.2	without direct interference from politics or religion.
1:48.3	And it drew inspiration from some of the developments in science in the 17th century developments
	...

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