Women in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were slowly becoming involved with other interests besides their households, art, and literature. Many people opposed these ideas because they believed that women were only good for their households. People believed that women should care more about their outer appearance rather than the knowledge they gained. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there were many different attitudes and reactions to women getting involved in different sciences, the women involved stood up for themselves and their own right to be involved in science, others disagreed and some people agreed with women becoming more involved. The more people that supported the women interested in sciences helped the world …show more content…
In the forward of Marie Meurdrac, Chemistry Simplified for Women she wrote, “On the other hand, I flattered myself that I am not the first lady to have something published; that minds have no sex and that if minds of women were cultivated like those of men, they would be equal to the minds of the latter.” (Doc.2) Marie is standing up for herself, believing that her gender does not affect the way she learns and that the mind of men and women are the same. In Maria Sibylla Merian’s Wonderful Metamorphoses and Special Nourishment of Caterpillars, she wrote, “I collected all the caterpillars that I could find, in order to observe their metamorphoses. Thus, I withdrew from human society and engaged exclusively in these investigations.” (Doc.5) In this piece of work she mentions how ever since she was younger she was interested in science and that she had finally taken action about her interests. She mentions how she had stopped doing everything to give all her time to her investigations and even though this was socially acceptable she still continued to do what interested her. Dorothea Erxleben was the first woman to be granted a M.D. in Germany, she had wrote in the Inquiry into the Causes Preventing the Female Sex from Studying “Some will feel as if I declare war on men [by practicing medicine] or at least attempt to deprive them of their privilege.” …show more content…
In The Heavenly Machine that Johannes Hevelius had drawn there was “Johannes and Elisabetha Hevelius using a sextant to collaborate on astronomical research.” (Doc.4) In this picture it shows how the women were involved with their science studies and this action was to prove that they were just as smart and could do the things women could do. The husband of Maria Winkelmann, Gottfried Kirch, had once said about his wife “I had observed a variable star..., she found a comet in the sky. I was surprised that I had not seen it the night before.” (Doc.6) Kirch is supporting his wife and by him talking about what he saw and how he was surprised shows that sometimes she saw things that he had missed. This was a reaction to how women were overlooked as people who should not study science and focus on the household and art. A German philosopher and mathematician, Gottfried Leibniz, had written “I have often thought that women of elevated mind advance knowledge more properly than do men.” (Doc.7) This philosopher helps support the idea of women being able to study beyond literature because he mentions how women tend to understand information more than men do. The first women to receive a Ph.D from a Germany university was Dorothea Schlozer, and in a newspaper it said “She sews, knits and understands