Harriet Brooks Quotes
I think it is a duty I owe to my profession and to my sex to show that a woman has a right to the practice of her profession and cannot be condemned to abandon it merely because she marries. I cannot conceive how women's colleges, inviting and encouraging women to enter professions can be justly founded or maintained denying such a principle.
See {628477} for the Dean’s answer. Professor Brooks was about to be married and under the mores of the day and Barnard’s rules, married women were not allowed to work. They should be at home taking care of husband and children. Ironically, there are still a few conservatives who advocate a return to the old policy.
Harriet Brooks, 1876-1933, Canadian Physicist & Professor at Barnard College in New York City, Letter to the then Dean of the college, Laura Drake Gill, 1906
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
See {628476} for the text that triggered this response. These quotations are very important because it illustrates the terrible sexism that existed even when women were hired into professional jobs which itself is rare. They should be at home taking care of husband and children. Ironically, there are still a few conservatives who advocate a return to the old policy.
Billinghurst was physically handicapped without the use of her legs. She protested and marched in protest parades using a hand propelled tricycle which the police sometimes dumped her out of and left her immobile in alleys.
The deed was made out in the name of her husband followed by the phrase “et ux”. That is a legal abbreviation for “et uxor” which literally means “and wife”. It was in use in English and American law from the time that married women had no right to property and the wife was a mere appendage to the husband. It is still recognized as a proper form by the law of many states.
He gave a litany of ills that have occurred when women had been educated. He did not provide any of the counter examples.
- Born: July 2, 1876
- Died: April 17, 1933
- Nationality: Canadian
- Profession:
Harriet Brooks was the first Canadian female nuclear physicist. She is most famous for her research on nuclear transmutations and radioactivity. Ernest Rutherford, who guided her graduate work, regarded her as comparable to Marie Curie in the calibre of her aptitude. She was among the first persons to discover radon and to try to determine its atomic mass.
