Women of the Scientific Revolution

Women were not allowed to attend academic institutions in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, but many were highly educated and contributed significantly to understanding laws of science and nature. Many are unfamiliar with the women who were instrumental to the Scientific Revolution: the naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian; Margaret Cavendish, author of scientific books; physicist Emilie du Chatelet; Maria Agnesi, a professor of mathematics and natural philosophy at the University of Bologna; and astronomer Caroline Herschel, among others. This book explores the context of women’s involvement in the Scientific Revolution and their contributions to botany, astronomy, mathematics, physics, biology, and chemistry.