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Female pioneers of science

Józefa Joteyko, Helena Willman-Grabowska and Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska – next to Maria Skłodowska-Curie – are the first women scientists in Poland. Dr. Iwona Dadej from the PAS Institute of History in Warsaw and the PAS Center for Historical Research in Berlin talks about forgotten female researchers.

Who were the first female scientists in Poland?

Short remark: In early spring, at more than three-week interval, we have two holidays that celebrate women –  the International Women’s Day (March 8) and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (February 11). While the first date every one associates with the struggle for women's rights, the second date, established quite recently by the United Nations and UNESCO, aims to recognize the role of women and girls in science and technology.

As a historian dealing with the history of science and the history of women, I would like the interest in these subjects to last longer and to translate into good research into the history of science in a gender perspective, the presence of women in academic structures.

The figure of Maria Skłodowska-Curie and her scientific achievements have been fairly well studied. But her remarkable achievements often obscure the real state of research on the history of women in science, and more precisely – the lack of scientific biographies of female researchers and pioneers of science.

We seem to forget that, apart from the above-mentioned world-class researcher, there is also a large group of fearless women, who have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of science. I would even call them the "MSC generation", because they were peers of Skłodowska-Curie, they shared the experience of being excluded and had to struggle for recognition. They admired Maria Skłodowska-Curie for her achievements and the authority she had in the scientific community, for her service to humanity and the attainment of global peace.

I will mention just three women – pioneers of science.

Józefa Joteyko (1866-1928), who headed in Brussels a research institute dealing with the work physiology, the phenomenon of fatigue, and experimental psychology. After the World War I, she resigned from these prestigious positions in Brussels and moved to Warsaw, where she also took up co-creation of pedagogical psychology and labor pedagogy. Today, very few researchers know her scientific achievements, although for her contemporaries she was an example of a Polish woman who achieved great success abroad and was set as a role model for younger female students.

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Józefa Joteyko

Helena Willman-Grabowska (1870-1957) was a linguist who studied over a dozen European and Oriental languages, including Sanskrit. She was also a Polish female researcher, who thanks to her work and scientific passion, managed to obtain a professorship in Sanskrit – first in Paris, and later on (after long efforts) in Poland (Jagiellonian University). Similar to Curie and Joteyko, her work was first recognized abroad.

Zofia Daszyńska-Golińska (1866-1934) was a historian, dealing with statistics, demography and economic history, who during interwar period lectured at the Free Polish University and was a parliamentarian. Her broad research interests resulted from her civic and political commitment. She can be considered a "public intellectual", who boldly took the floor on important social and political issues before 1914 and in the interwar period.

In what fields of science could Polish women in the first half of the 20th century work and gain recognition for their work?

The first female researchers had a much more difficult start than their male colleagues. They occasioned intense public interest and were constantly confronted with gender role expectations. In these fixed notions about the role of women there was absolutely no room for intellectual work, research, conducting experiments in laboratories or speaking out one’s mind in public. They also had little chance for prestigious positions within scientific community. Despite this, a number of female researchers, fascinated with science, undertook the difficult task of smoothing the way for other female scientists. The female pioneers of science, challenging the established order, did their job, worked for the advancement of science, for a better future for mankind. Emerging “new” research fields turned out to be a life chance for some of them.

These include bacteriology, the development of which was greatly influenced by the first women researchers. Here I want to mention, among others, Helena Sparrow-Germa (1891-1970) and Stanisława Adamowiczowa (1888-1965), who were involved in fighting epidemics, preventive vaccinations, but also in the "public health" policy. Both of them have gained international recognition: as experts in epidemiology and researchers, who actively empowered other women in science.

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Helena Sparrow-Germa

On the other hand, female pioneers in the field of anthropology include such names as Maria Czaplicka (1886-1921) and Cezaria Baudouin de Courtenay Ehrenkreutz-Jędrzejewiczowa (1885-1967). Both ladies enjoyed international recognition – Czaplicka was the first female lecturer (Associate Professor) in anthropology at Oxford University, while Jędrzejewiczowa, a co-founder of Polish Scientific Institute in Jerusalem, was the first scientist to adopt phenomenology in studies of folk culture.

Let us add to this the first professorship in exact sciences for a researcher – Alicja Dorabialska (1897-1975), who in the 1920s studied physical chemistry under Maria Skłodowska-Curie at Radium Institute in Paris and in the 1930s became the first woman Professor at the Lviv Polytechnic.

The participation of women in scientific institutions was not possible for a long time. In the first half of the twentieth century, despite the existence of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences and a number of organizations that brought together scientists in particular fields, the visibility of women in these institutions was low, not to say none. That is why, in order to fight for recognition within their scientific community, female researchers created their own network of professional organizations, such as the International Federation of University Women (IFUW). The Polish Association of Women with Higher Education belonged to it. An important figure in the IFUW board was Stanisława Adamowiczowa. Unfortunately, World War II destroyed this beautifully developing idea of scientific diplomacy and scientific exchange of women from all countries and continents.

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The 7th Congress of International Federation of University Women in Cracow, 1936.

Who were the first women scientists working at the Polish Academy of Sciences?

This is a good question, but also a difficult one. The answer to this question should become a desideratum for future research, for instance, a reliable and critical monograph on gender relations and gender order within the organizational structures of the Polish Academy of Sciences in its history.

The original composition of the Polish Academy of Sciences, at the time of establishing, included 3 female and 145 male professors. This percentage of women in the organizational structures of the Polish Academy of Sciences has not been subject to major changes.

However, I would like to mention at least two women who have joined the emerging scientific organization. I chose representatives of two completely different fields: astronomy and history. Both researchers educated in the Second Polish Republic obtained their qualifications as university professors before the war, and later on in the 1950s made an undeniable contribution to the development of their disciplines.

Wilhelmina Iwanowska (1905-1999), a world-renowned astrophysicist (first astrophysics professor in Poland). She was a graduate and postdoctoral researcher at the Stefan Batory University in Vilnius and one of the founders of the Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń.

Natalia Gąsiorowska-Grabowska (1881-1964), in turn, professionally associated with the University of Warsaw, where she obtained a venia legendi (the right to lecture, conduct seminars and hold examinations) in historical sciences, and after the war full professorship. In her research, she dealt with economic history, the history of law, and the history of the workers' movement.

Gąsiorowska and Iwanowska were if not the first, then at least one of the few scientists, who obtained postdoctoral position in their respective disciplines. After the war, they became not only members of scientific institutions, but also had an impact on the way science is organized and managed, once again blazing the trail for female scientists.

Dr. Iwona Dadej is a historian, researcher at the PAS Institute of History in Warsaw and the PAS Center for Historical Research in Berlin. She deals with the history of science, the history of social movements, as well as comparative and transnational history. Currently, she is working on a book on postdoctoral theses in the Second Polish Republic and the gender order in academic culture. Dr. Dadej is also the author of the monograph Beruf und Berufung transnational. Deutsche und polnische Akademikerinnen in der Zwischenkriegszeit (Fiber edition, Osnabrück 2019).