The Marquise du Chatelet on Women ’s Education
"I feel the full weight of the prejudice which so universally excludes us from sciences; it is one of the contradictions in life that has always amazed me, seeing that the law allows us to determine the fate of great nations, but that there is no place where we are trained to think.
Let the reader ponder why, at no time in the course of so many centuries, a good tragedy, a good poem, a respected tale, a fine painting, a good book on physics has ever been produced by women. Why these creatures whose understanding appears in every way similar to that of men, seem to be stopped by some irresistible force, this side of a barrier. Let people give a reason, but until they do, women will have reason to protes against their education.
If i were king, I would redress an abuse which cuts back, as it were, one half of human kind. I would have women participate in all human rights, especially those of the mind, … the new education would greatly benefit the human race. Women would be worth more and men would gain something new to emulate…. I am convinced that either many women are unaware of their talentsby reason of the fault in their education or that they bury them on account of prejudice for want of intellectual courage. My own experience confirms this. Chance made me acquainted with men of letters who extended the hand of friendship to me… I then began to believe that i was being with a mind."
Source: The marquise du Chatelet, from the preface (written about 1735)
to her translation of Bernard Mandeville’s The fable of Bees)
Facts:
1. Madame Chatelet learned physics/science autodidactically
2. She was the first person who translated Newton’s Principia
Mathematica from Latin to French. On its publication, many
scientists at that time, praised her commentary for being clearer than
original. In it, She brings us deeply Newton’s attraction laws, the
shape of the earth and the parabolic orbits of comets.
3. She was Voltaire’s lover. it was mentioned that, after the time she
got more famous, Voltaire became jealous. Later on, she felt in love
with younger poet.
Ref:
1. SciAm, Feb 2008
2. Out of the shadows: Contributions of Twentieth-Century Women to Physics,
by Nina Byers and Gary Williams, CU Press 2006