The Great Man Theory, to put it simply, is the idea that the most influential men in history \u00a0were great leaders because of certain personality traits they possessed. The Great Man Theory completely cuts out women, and this Lady Science podcast dives into the problems it presents, specifically in the context of science. So many women have gone unrecognized, and it is because this theory guided the general public in what to value.<\/p>\n
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The most interesting point that was brought up in this podcast was that even if we looked back through history to find great women, we would be looking for women that held the same characteristics as \u201cGreat Men.\u201d This means that only a handful of women would reach this bar, which is obviously an unfair assessment of the contributions of women in history. This is painfully evident in the story Marilyn Ogilvie, the episode\u2019s guest, tells. Two students in one of her classes decided to research women in science, and the only woman they could find enough material on was Marie Curie. Of course, it is assumed that this is because Marie Curie holds many of the qualities of men working in science.<\/p>\n
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At the same time, if we were to search for more women contributors, we would be looking at the more privileged women. So, in my mind, the question becomes what makes a person great? In this podcast, there doesn\u2019t seem to be a clear answer. It appears that every class, gender, and race has to be assessed with different standards. This would make it easier to compare people within their class, gender, and race, but it would make it nearly impossible to compare people across different classes, genders, or races. Then again, history is not exactly cut and dry. In my opinion, there is not really a right way to gauge the importance of one person over another, but there are certainly wrong ways.<\/p>\n
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The Great Man Theory, to put it simply, is the idea that the most influential men in history \u00a0were great leaders because of certain personality…<\/p>\n