Reading Connections #2; Where were the women?

Many discoveries were made in the Scientific Revolution, however the only ones that are talked about today were made by men.  Which brings up the question where were the women in the scientific revolution?  In class a couple weeks ago we discussed this question and were able to make some connections to why women's ideas were not taken into account during this time period.

Using the article handed out in class titled Gender, Science and Modernity in Seventeenth-century England, by Ruth Watts, helped us come to various conclusions.  It was stated that women were affected by educational reformation, politics, and the mindset that they were just not educated enough to contribute.  Women in that time period were said to have their place in medicinal or culinary roles, not in science research.  Not only these reasons held women back but they were also not able to attend institutions and university's to further their education and they could not attend the Royal Society for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge.  In this society men were able to further their understanding of science and experiment to come up with new ideas.  Not being able to attend such places made it clear that men thought women in the seventeenth century had no place in science.  

Even though women had all of these struggles during the scientific revolution some found ways around it and began to research regardless.  Such as Maria Cunitz who was stated as the first female scientist.  She was a natural philosopher and was most interested in astronomy.  She was never able to attend any formal university because she was a women but her father, Dr. Henrich Cunitz, taught her himself.  She wrote Urania Propitia in 1650, which was her first work that included new tables, methods, and solutions.  Only a few copies were printed and she published it privately since women were not supposed to be writing on science.  She went on to continue researching astronomy and join the Republic Of Letters where she could share more of her findings.  Maria never went on to publish anything after Urania.

Although Maria Cunitz is considered the first female scientist of this time period there were many others.  Their work was and is not widely known today because it was not right for a woman to be so knowledgeable on natural science.  Mostly important men like Bacon, Aristotle, and Newton are considered the key players in the revolution.  If the women's work was accepted and known about back then the scientific revolution could have been completely.