In celebration of both International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, we spoke to HUP’s Executive Editor for History, Kathleen McDermott, and Executive Editor for Science, Janice Audet, to learn more about some exceptional women who challenged the societal standards in their fields, from groundbreaking astronomers to a seventeenth-century African Queen.
Vera Rubin
When some people hear the name Vera Rubin, they might think of Rubin’s pioneering work on galaxy rotation rates, or her data that provided evidence for dark matter. For others, a new facility in Chile comes to mind, recently named the National Science Foundation Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the first large observatory in the world to be named after a woman. And for still others, Rubin’s legacy is for her support of other women in science. When writing Vera Rubin: A Life, Jacqueline Mitton and Simon Mitton were the first people to have access to Rubin’s papers and correspondence, now preserved in the US Library of Congress. This gave them unique and in-depth insight into her character and her fascinating life as she dealt with discrimination and combined family life with an outstanding career.
Rubin’s fascination with the stars and the night sky began as a child and expanded as she studied the motion of the galaxies. An astute observer, her research provided evidence for the existence of galactic superclusters and corroborated theories about dark matter. Rubin surpassed society’s conventional ideas about women in astronomy and female scientists, especially those with children. Indeed, while breaking new ground as the first female astronomer at Palomar Observatory, Rubin and her husband, Bob, were also raising four children. When Rubin discovered there were no women’s restrooms at Palomar, she took action, establishing the first women’s restroom at the observatory and promptly kicking an outdated conception of who an astronomer could be out the door. As Rubin’s reputation and experience grew, she raised her voice for other women in science. She participated on committees and wrote reports sharing data about discrimination against women in science. She challenged colleagues to cease using sexist language and prioritize female representation and recognition whenever scientists were honored or invited to speak. Furthermore, she advocated to increase women’s representation in the leadership of astronomical associations and other scientific societies, championing equality within the most prestigious scientific organizations. From her early days as a girl who stayed up late to gaze out the window to her honor as a National Medal of Science recipient, Rubin was fueled by her love of the stars. For her contributions to research and to women in science, Vera Rubin continues to be an inspiration.
—Janice Audet
Henrietta Szold
Henrietta Szold is certainly a familiar name to members of Hadassah and to most Israelis, but she deserves even wider recognition as one of the most influential women in the first half of the twentieth century. Born in Baltimore in 1860, one of eight daughters of immigrant Jews from Hungary, Szold from a young age sought to alleviate the social ills she saw around her. As Dvora Hacohen shows in To Repair a Broken World, she aimed especially to better the lives of women and children.
As an intelligent, ambitious teenager, Szold desperately wanted to attend university, but Johns Hopkins University did not accept women and her parents could not afford to send her away to college. It was a bitter disappointment and her first significant encounter with the exclusion of women, although she would face similar discrimination throughout her life. At age seventeen, Szold began working as a teacher and became a weekly columnist for The Jewish Messenger. She established a night school in Baltimore for immigrants, raising funds, providing materials, and even teaching there herself. In her thirties, she worked as an editor at the prestigious Jewish Publication Society in Philadelphia, where she translated works from German and French and edited the American Jewish Year Book. Yet her title remained “secretary.” At the age of 42, Szold moved to New York and became the first woman to study at the Jewish Theological Seminary, where a love affair with the scholar Louis Ginzberg ended in heartbreak. To her lifelong sorrow, she would never marry or have children.
In 1912, Szold founded Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. It led to the second major chapter of her life, which began in 1920 when at age 60 she traveled to Palestine, now under British mandate, to set up a healthcare system, dramatically reducing rates of disease and infant mortality. Under her leadership, hospitals and clinics established by Hadassah offered medical services to Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike. The only woman elected to the Zionist executive, Szold served in the quasi-governmental Jewish Agency, overseeing its health and education departments and working tirelessly to improve the educational system and social welfare network. In 1933, in response to the growing threat to Jews in Europe, Szold founded Youth Aliyah, which would provide homes for 30,000 children, including orphaned survivors of the Holocaust.
Scholar, feminist, and activist, Henrietta Szold was a visionary leader whose devotion to helping others remains a source of inspiration to thousands.
—Kathleen McDermott
Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin
In early twentieth-century England there were few female scientists, let alone astronomers. Often the lone woman in her courses and the observatory, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin faced constant skepticism from her peers and a lack of recognition for her work. And still, clear-eyed and determined, she went on to pen what fellow astronomer Otto Struve would call “the most brilliant PhD thesis ever written in astronomy.” In it, she proposed a theory that was eventually proven true: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin revealed the atomic composition of stars. Now, for any astronomer it was difficult to posit a revolutionary theory, but for a woman in science it was almost impossible. As Donovan Moore reveals in What Stars Are Made Of: The Life of Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin, a notable male colleague dismissed her work, stating that her conclusions were wrong. But Payne-Gaposchkin was not deterred by her critics, and eventually, she was duly recognized for correctly theorizing what stars are made of.
This discovery was one of many illustrious firsts throughout the course of Payne-Gaposchkin’s life. She became the first woman to receive a PhD in astronomy from Radcliffe College. She was the first woman to be promoted to full professor by Harvard and the first woman to head a department at Harvard. Throughout a lifetime of facing obstacles and closed doors, Payne-Gaposchkin rose to the challenge time and again, and through her commitment to science, she cut a path for others to follow.
—Janice Audet
Queen Njinga
Asked to name one of the most powerful ruling women of the early modern era, many people might point to Queen Elizabeth I of England. Few would likely name her near contemporary Queen Njinga, ruler of Ndongo, a large territory in central Africa. But they should. Born in 1582, descendant of a royal line reaching back to the founding of the kingdom of Ndongo, Njinga learned statecraft at her father’s court. After her brother assumed the throne, she served as his envoy to the Portuguese, who were conducting relentless wars of conquest in the region for land and slaves. Njinga proved more adept than her brother in both diplomacy and strategy. Upon his death, she became the real defender of Ndongo’s independence.
In Njinga of Angola: Africa’s Warrior Queen, Linda Heywood recounts the dramatic twists and turns in the life of this fascinating and complex woman. After a short reign as ruler of Ndongo, Njinga was forced into exile and lived in the bush, where she transformed herself into a fierce military leader who fought alongside her soldiers. She conquered the neighboring state of Matamba and established a court that was a powerhouse in the region. Njinga upended traditional gender norms, declaring herself “king” and keeping many young male consorts. She owned slaves and engaged in slave trading. She converted to Christianity and corresponded with the Vatican, even concocting a clever plan to have the pope recognize her as a Christian monarch and Matamba as a Christian state. Once, during peace negotiations with the Portuguese, she refused to sit before them on carpets, which signaled defeat. She instead ordered a slave on all fours to act as a chair, on whom she sat before the Europeans as an equal.
This astute and innovative leader, named one of UNESCO’s twenty-five most influential women in African history, became an icon of resistance and a folk hero throughout the African diaspora in the Atlantic. Daring warrior, master diplomat, and crafty politician, Queen Njinga was a force to be reckoned with. We should all know her story.
—Kathleen McDermott
We’ll be highlighting other books for Women’s History Month across our social media channels throughout March. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter, and be sure to follow our international office on Twitter, too.