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AN ARCHIVE PRESENTING AND DOCUMENTING SOME IMPORTANT AND ORIGINAL CONTRIBUTIONS MADE BEFORE 1976 BY 20th CENTURY WOMEN. |
| Whose faces are shown above? The graphic show the faces of some physicists spanning three generations. Click here for their names. They are among the 83 women for whom data is archived in this website. |
| What can you find in this archive? Descriptions of important contributions to science made by 83 women in the 20th century. These are documented by the original papers in which the discoveries were first reported. In addition there are historical essays and other historical documents not easily available elsewhere. |
| Where are 17th, 18th, and 19th century women?
Women in those centuries did not have access to institutions of higher learning. Their participation in scientific discovery was not possible. There are some notable exceptions such as Émilie du Châtelet, Sofia Kovalevskya, and Mary Somerville but generally women' intellectual development was thwarted. Brief historical account.. |
| Why only three quarters of the 20th
century? By the last quarter of the century there were many more women working as physicist than in earlier years, too many for this website. Each woman in this website has been carefully and thoroughly researched, and the descriptions of their work vetted by distinguished colleagues who served as Field Editors. |
| Why only 83 women? We believe there are more women whose contributions should be recognized but time and resources did not allow for further additions. This work would not have been possible without the generous support of The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the American Physical Society, the University of California, UCLA Physics and Astronomy Department, the Laboratories of NIST, Joan Palevsky and other generous donors. |
| How can we browse
this archive? By the name of an individual woman physicist chosen, for example, from the list on the right or from the Annotated Photo Gallery or from her quotation In Her Own Words or by using the Search Engine provided. |
| And then? Follow the clues and click away! If you desire further reading, we suggest some books and articles on the webpages and have included a very large reference database in this website. |
Welcome to CWP! |