IsisCB Explore

Article ID: CBB000773222

Kristine Bonnevie, Tine Tammes and Elisabeth Schiemann in Early Genetics: Emerging Chances for a University Career for Women (2007)

Stamhuis, Ida H. (Author)
Monsen, Arve (Author)

Journal of the History of Biology
Volume: 40
Pages: 427--466

Publication Date: 2007
Edition Details: Part of a special section: “Women in Genetics”
Language: English

Outside Links

WorldCat

Google Scholar

JSTOR

Academia.edu

Genetics Universities and colleges Women in science 20th century, early Tammes, Tine Schiemann, Elisabeth Bonnevie, Kristine

Abstract The beginning of the twentieth century saw the emergence of the discipline of genetics. It is striking how many female scientists were contributing to this new field at the time. At least three female pioneers succeeded in becoming professors: Kristine Bonnevie (Norway), Elisabeth Schiemann (Germany) and the Tine Tammes (The Netherlands). The question is which factors contributed to the success of these women's careers? At the time women were gaining access to university education it had become quite the norm for universities to be sites for teaching and research. They were still expanding: new laboratories were being built and new disciplines were being established. All three women benefited from the fact that genetics was considered a new field promising in terms of its utility to society; in the case of Tammes and Schiemann in agriculture and in the case of Bonnevie in eugenics. On the other hand, the field of genetics also benefited from the fact that these first female researchers were eager for the chance to work in science and wanted to make active contributions. They all worked and studied in environments which, although different from one another, were positive towards them, at least at the start. Having a patron was generally a prerequisite. Tammes profited from her teacher's contacts and status. Bonnevie made herself indispensable through her success as a teacher and eventually made her position so strong that she was no longer dependent on a single patron. The case of Schiemann adds something new; it shows the vulnerability of such dependency. Initially, Schiemann's teacher had to rely on the first generation of university women simply because he was unable to attract ambitious young men to his institute. In those early, uncertain years of the new discipline, male scientists tended to choose other, better established, and more prestigious disciplines. However, when genetics itself had become an established field, it also became more attractive to men. Our case studies also demonstrate that a new field at first relatively open to women closes its doors to them once it becomes established.

...More

Included in

Article Richmond, Marsha L. (2007) Muriel Wheldale Onslow and Early Biochemical Genetics. Journal of the History of Biology (p. 389). unapi

Citation URI

http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB000773222/

Citations Indexes

Similar Citations

Article Richmond, Marsha L.; (2007)
Muriel Wheldale Onslow and Early Biochemical Genetics (/isis/citation/CBB000773221/)

Article Fando, R. A.; (2008)
Women at the Origins of Soviet Human Genetics (/isis/citation/CBB000930371/)

Article Richmond, Marsha L.; (2001)
Women in the Early History of Genetics: William Bateson and the Newnham College Mendelians, 1900--1910 (/isis/citation/CBB000671231/)

Book Nürnberg, Reiner; Höxtermann, Ekkehard; Voigt, Martina; (2014)
Elisabeth Schiemann 1881--1972: vom Aufbruch der Genetik und der Frauen in den Umbrüchen des 20. Jahrhunderts: Beiträge eines interdisziplinären Symposiums zum 200. Gründungsjubiläum der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin (/isis/citation/CBB001551277/)

Book Singer, Sandra L.; (2003)
Adventures Abroad: North American Women at German-Speaking Universities, 1868--1915 (/isis/citation/CBB000650744/)

Article Yvette Kosmann-Schwarzbach; (2015)
Women Mathematicians in France in the Mid-Twentieth Century (/isis/citation/CBB680475090/)

Article A. E. L. Davis; (2018)
Woman into Mathematician: The Opening of University Mathematical Education to Women in the British Isles: A Prosopographical Note (/isis/citation/CBB646035129/)

Article Álvarez Peláez, R.; (2007)
La genética y la Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas (/isis/citation/CBB000831519/)

Article Ogilvie, Marilyn Bailey; (2007)
Inbreeding, Eugenics, and Helen Dean King (1869--1955) (/isis/citation/CBB000773223/)

Article Marsha L. Richmond; (2015)
Women as Mendelians and Geneticists (/isis/citation/CBB662855210/)

Article Talebian, Mohammad; Talebian, Ehsan; (2012)
Alenush Terian: The Iranian Solar Mother (/isis/citation/CBB001221646/)

Book Suchmiel, Jadwiga; (2000)
Działalność naukowa kobiet w Uniwersytecie we Lwowie do roku 1939 (/isis/citation/CBB000330807/)

Article Micault, Natalie Pigeard; (2013)
The Curie's Lab and Its Women (1906--1934) (/isis/citation/CBB001252177/)

Article Stephen J. Weininger; (2013)
Chemistry for the "Industrial Classes:" Laboratory Instruction, Mass Education and Women's Experience in Mid-Western Land-Grant Colleges, 1870-1914 (/isis/citation/CBB671862583/)

Chapter Annette Vogt; (2002)
The Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gesellschaft and the Career Chances for Femal Scientists between 1911 and 1945 (/isis/citation/CBB854008208/)

Article Opitz, Donald L.; (2013)
“A Triumph of Brains over Brute”: Women and Science at the Horticultural College, Swanley, 1890--1910 (/isis/citation/CBB001252691/)

Article Coesèl, Marga; Zevenhuizen, Erik; (2000)
Op heterdaad betrapt? Hugo de Vries en zijn houding tegenover vrouwen in de wetenschap (/isis/citation/CBB000110510/)

Book Comfort, Nathaniel C.; (2001)
Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control (/isis/citation/CBB000102137/)

Article Dietrich, Michael R.; Tambasco, Brandi H.; (2007)
Beyond the Boss and the Boys: Women and the Division of Labor in Drosophila Genetics in the United States, 1934--1970 (/isis/citation/CBB000773224/)

Essay Review Strauss, Bernard S.; (2004)
Rosy and Jim: The Mystery of the Double Helix (/isis/citation/CBB001566358/)