Stories For Children About Female Researchers
When you think of great scientists, you might think of names like Einstein or Newton. But what about female researchers and women scientists throughout history?
Society has always left them in the background and placed more emphasis on the achievements of their male colleagues… when they have not been persecuted as witches or accused of witchcraft.
In 2015, the UN declared 11 February as “International Day for Women and Girls in Science”. The aim is to recognize all women in science and honor their achievements.
Today we are going to talk about some of them, but we would need many more articles to really do all female researchers justice.
3 stories about great female researchers in history
In this article, we present three books about incredible female researchers that you can read with your children. They are truly icons of past, present and future generations.
Women of Science: 50 Fearless Pioneers Who Changed the World
This is a book by Rachel Ignotofsky. It is excellent for children between 8 and 15 years of age.
The women of science tell about women pioneers through the ages from all over the world. To name a few examples lost in the history books: the mysterious forces behind solar eclipses were revealed by a young Chinese woman named Wang Zhenyi. Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer program as early as 1840. You may know Hedy Lamarr as the beautiful Austrian actress from the Hollywood golden age, but she also had a secret workshop where she developed a communication technology that is the basis for GPS, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.
Marie Curie
She did pioneering research in chemistry and physics. Marie Salomea Sklodowska-Curie was born in 1867 and was the first woman to receive two Nobel Prizes, both in physics and chemistry. In addition, she was the very first person to receive them.
First, her husband received all the glory and fame for her research on radiation. She actually had to explain herself to clear up the misunderstanding.
Small people, big dreams. Marie Curie
This book is from a series written by Isabel Sanchez Vegara and Frau Isa. In it, they take you closer to this great woman’s life, when she discovered things like radium and polonium.
Both her love of science and her commitment to free collaboration between researchers around the world make her one of the best examples of a female researcher.
Jane Goodall
Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall was born in London in 1934. She is world famous for her studies in primatology on chimpanzees and anthropology. Her scientific research on the behavior, society and use of tools among chimpanzees made her famous in the scientific community. In 2013, she received the Prince of Asturias Award for Scientific and Technical Research .
Jane Goodall – An inspiring story
This is a perfect story to encourage girls to follow their dreams. Albert, a security guard at a summer camp, tells the true story of Jane every night. Through Jane’s fascinating life, she reminds girls to never stop trying to achieve their goals and dreams.
Other female researchers
We can not conclude this article without mentioning a few more female researchers from history. For example, there is Barbara McClintock, who specialized in cytogenetics and won the Nobel Prize for her theory of jumping genes. In addition, we can mention Jocelyn Bell, a British astrophysicist who discovered the first radio signal from a pulsar.
One of the earliest female researchers was Hypatia of Alexandria, who was the first mathematician. We know that she was born in 370 AD. in Alexandria, Egypt. She was active in philosophy, physics, mathematics and astronomy and she was sentenced to death by a group of Christians who accused her of heresy.
They brutally murdered her when she was 46 years old. Her research in science and literary studies was so great that she outshined all men of her time.
We hope these stories about female researchers help you inspire girls in science and help them realize their dreams.
