Women in Geology: An Historical Review

The paper provides an historical review of the transition from geology as private pursuit for women to professionalization and their ensuing struggle for access to the professional world of geoscientists.Geology was popular among women in early 19 th -century Britain.The still non-professionalized scientific culture allowed these women some participation.However, they were excluded from universities and membership in the more prestigious societies.In the second half of the 19 th century, the increasing professionalization of the natural sciences pushed women out of the field in the UK as well, and globally the first professional female geologists only appeared after university education became available to women.By this time, women were already seen as unwelcome competition by their future male colleagues.The typical early professional female geologist was unmarried and worked in specialized fields considered particularly 'feminine', such as paleontological collection curator, micropaleontologist, petrographer, computer or chemical laboratory technician, or she worked in niche specializations without competition.Possibly due to language barriers, but little is known about female geoscientists from non-Western cultures.To this day, female scientists struggle for equal participation and recognition.