Women in Astronomy - Female Astronomers

Caroline Herschel, pioneer woman astronomer, helped discover the planet Uranus, and also discovered nebulae and comets on her own.

Hypatia, a mathematician and philosopher at the end of the classical period, also wrote on the motions of the planets. The preaching of Christian bishop Cyril against her paganism led to her death at the hands of a mob in 415.

Maria Mitchell was the first professional woman astronomer in the United States and became a professor of astronomy at Vassar College.

Gale biography of an American astrophysicist, youngest person ever to hold the position of chief scientist at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Before she returned to school to study physics, she had a successful writing career, including writing a cookbook and working for Mademoiselle.

Margaret Burbidge, in this 2000 article, reports on the status of women in the field of astronomy. The results: 94% of women in a survey "said they were treated differently than their male colleagues" and 66% "said they expected their career would be hindered because of their gender."

How Henrietta Leavitt solved key problems in astronomy with her 1920 discovery of a way to calculate cosmic distances.

Because the detailed work of cataloging photographs would be repetitive and undramatic, women got the job. This article documents the contributions that these women made, despite the predictions of dullness, to the study of space and astromony.