In the podcast about the Great Man Theory they first start off talking a lot about history and the way that we tell history and they emphasize that it is a choice how we bring about history. They also talk a lot about how women are overlooked in the field of science and how well known male figures get more of the credit and popularity in their work. It makes you think about the women that get overlooked in history, especially women who are minorities.
This has to do a lot with the time period in which the Great Man Theory was in effect which is around the 19th century where women were considered minorities and stayed at home while men were made all the money and were superior. In my opinion the Great Man Theory in the 19th century really put into perspective of how much women were overlooked. She said that through lots of research she ended up noticing that 108 women were notably given credit for their work in the field of science. I found that very interesting when listening to the podcast.
I also agree with your opinion that the Great Man Theory in the 19th century really put into perspective just how much women were overlooked. Minorities were especially overlooked during this time, and this thought particularly reminded me of the whole idea of intersectionality and the idea that multiple factors that could have let someone be forgotten in history.
Adding to that, the fact that Lady Science distinguished privileged women from working class women was really important! Like you mentioned minority women are especially overlooked. One of the women in the podcast mentioned the quote “Well-behaved women rarely make history,” and she said that she really liked that quote IN CONTEXT. Sure it’s a fun quote to encourage modern day women to be less abashed and get out there, but the quote is truly talking about how women in the past (who were still impressive and were doing things worthy of recording) weren’t in positions to break through social constraints.
One thing that stood out was the history of women in science. As Marilyn Ogilvie states she bought into the idea that men were the dominant people in the science field. It raises this important idea of education and what we teach children because at a young age we start to make biases which can be detrimental to different people.
I really liked how you discussed the lack of attention and credit women get in the field of science and this is a problem that we as a nation need to address. It’s interesting how 19th century ideals are still present in today’s society. In the podcast they discussed how such a few amount of women win/won nobel prizes and the reason for this is a male council decides who is worthy of the prize.