Learning from the pioneer women in Geosciences

From the beginning of the 19th century, when geology was firmly established as a modern science, many women geoscientists made significant contributions to the advancement of the geoscience’s knowledge, although many universities were still closed to women. A recent review of the existing literature on the role of women in the history of earth sciences (Vincent, 2020) indicate that at least 210 women geoscientists were active before the 1950, a number which undoubtedly exceeds what we would imagine. In fact, they are not sufficiently well known in the scientific community, to the public and accordingly within young students. As part of the group “Women in Geosciences” of the University of Bari, we have started a dissemination activity, mainly involving young students, bringing together the individual histories of female earth scientists from the 17th to the 20th century. They were active in various fields of geoscience such as mineralogy, paleontology, petrography, marine geology, stratigraphy, geological mapping, exploring mines, mountains and oceans, while collecting and studying minerals, fossils and rocks. In many cases, their activity resulted in economic and cultural improvement of which little groups, at first, and entire communities, later, got benefit. The lesson from the past tells us that most of them have faced numerous obstacles and huge prejudices over time due to persevering of unequal gender balance in Earth Sciences. Some of them remained invisible because their scientific goals were mainly attributed to well-known men (the Matilda effect of Rossiter, 1993), and some others only received recognition later. All of them are a great source of inspiration for their perseverance and their contribution to the development of geology as a science. Learning from the pioneering women geologists should encourage more young women into geosciences and help all of us to understand which prejudices we have overcome and what we still have to achieve. Rossiter M. W. (1993) - The Matthew Matilda Effect in Science. Soc. Stud. Sci., 23(2), 325-341. Vincent A. (2020) - Reclaiming the memory of pioneer female geologists 1800–1929. ADGEO, 53, 129–154, https://doi. org/10.5194/adgeo-53-129-2020.