Chemistry has always been women’s business

It’s this time of year again! March is Women’s History month, and I’ve been preparing the material for the course I’m teaching on feminist philosophy of science. Every year, I ask students to present the story of a woman scientist. What did she work on and how important was it to the development of science? Was she discriminated against due to her sex? Did she face any obstacles during her work?

You may be surprised, but the stories are not always gloomy – there are many women who did amazing things and received considerable recognition, even if they were later forgotten.

The stories of women chemists are some of the most intriguing in that respect. This is because they reveal something that I find to be forgotten nowadays; namely, that chemistry has been women’s business for a very long time. In fact, I would argue that, since the very beginning of chemistry, women were always involved in practicing it.

The first chemist that we know of is a woman: about 3000 years ago, Tappūtī-bēlat-ekalle was head perfumer in ancient Assyria. She created recipes for perfumes and developed what we would recognise today as chemical processes.

During alchemical times (roughly the 3rd century BCE to the 18th century CE), women were very present as well. Some of these were mythical figures and goddesses such as Isis, who played an important symbolic role, endowed with healing powers and the ability to halt putrefaction.^1,2 However, prominent figures (most notably Zosimos of Panopolis) also referred extensively to the contribution of women in developing techniques that had a lasting impact on the field. For example, during the Greco-Roman period, Mary the Jewess invented the kerotakis; a device designed to understand how vapours act on solids. Others include Paphnutia the Virgin, Theosebeia (to whom Zosimos’ writings are addressed, though nowadays it is unclear whether she actually existed; some say she was his sister) and Cleopatra (being one of the four women that knew how to make the philosopher’s stone, together with Mary the Jewess).³

The domestic realm

Women remained connected to chemistry in later centuries too. Historians explain this by the fact that many chemical processes and apparatuses were employed in activities for which women were responsible; namely domestic duties such as cooking and pharmacology. Women performed both activities within the same vicinities in the household. In more formal settings too, court pharmacies and court kitchens took up the same space and involved the same chemical processes and apparatuses.

Publications from the 16th and 17th centuries are particularly revealing of women’s role in chemical practice. Throughout Europe, women published books that presented recipes and processes that had important applications in cosmetology, cooking and pharmacology with great success, seeing numerous editions, reprints and translations. For example, in Venice in 1561 Isabella Cortese published a book called The Secrets of Lady Isabella Cortese. This book saw at least 11 editions, was translated into German, and included instructions on how to make soap, mix glues and polishes, and make toothpaste.⁴ It is also noteworthy that Cortese was extremely well read and that she critically analysed the received views of her time in a very insightful way. Specifically, she derided prominent figures in alchemy because she found their works too mystical and nonsensical. This is something that Robert Boyle later said as well to distance modern chemistry from alchemy and for which he was (in part) deemed the Father of Chemistry.

In 17th-century England, we also find books on cookery which explained how distillation should be performed and presented techniques for the preparation of medicines. In France, Marie Meurdrac published Benevolent and Easy Chemistry, on Behalf of Women. Her work is worth mentioning not only because of its direct mention of chemistry, but also because of her outlook on the role of women in the field. She said: ‘the mind has no sex, and if the minds of women were cultivated like those of men, and if we employed as much time and money in their instruction, they could become their equal’.⁴

Recognition and restrictions

Men too acknowledged women’s important role in the practice of chemistry. For example, a 17th century physician named Johann Helfrich Jüngken, when dedicating his book to the princess Elizabeth Amalia Magdalena of Bavaria, said that ‘noble chemistry is not unsuited to the feminine sex’.⁴

Nonetheless, the role of women in chemistry has always been restricted and determined by prejudices against their sex. Even the fact that women had acquired this knowledge was explained on the basis of a great sin. According to the ancient religious text the Book of Enoch, angels mated with women and bestowed on them alchemical knowledge; an act for which God punished them gravely.⁴ In truth, women’s involvement in chemistry was always ‘justified’ on the grounds that chemistry is relevant to their domestic duties. This explains why their practice was confined to cooking, cosmetology and pharmacology, and why, once chemistry became a proper science, they were excluded from practicing it.

Nevertheless, it still holds true that women have been part of chemical practice from the very start. When their social status allowed for it, they studied the best knowledge available to them extensively. They prepared different substances and developed important chemical techniques. They were knowledgeable about the theoretical principles and techniques available. In fact, I would go so far as to claim that chemistry’s practical and social significance has been greatly shaped by women’s contributions throughout millennia. Their historical role in early practices of pharmacology, cosmetology and cooking – however constrained by their sex – greatly impacted some of the most important facets of our lives, as well as of chemical practice.