The forgotten black women of science

Throughout history, black women have been overlooked and underappreciated. This series will explore those forgotten black women. This article will focus on black women in science. 

Mary Seacole 

Mary Seacole was a nurse and a heroine in the Crimean war. She was born in Kingston, Jamaica in 1805. Mary learned to be a nurse from her mother. As Mary was mix-raced, she was unable to vote, hold public office or enter the professions. 

In 1854 after travelling the world being a nurse, she went to England asking to be a nurse in the Crimean war. She was told no. This led to Seacole funding her own trip to the Crimea, where she visited the frontline to offer treatment to wounded soldiers. 

Rosalind Franklin  

Rosalind Franklin was a chemist and pioneer of DNA discovery. She created a technique called x-ray crystallography which revealed the shape of DNA is a helix. 

Unfortunately, Franklin was never credited for her work on DNA as two other scientists Crick and Watson stole her work and gave themselves the credit. 

Dorothy Vaughan  

Dorothy Vaughan was a mathematician and the first black women to be promoted to head of Personnel at NASA.  

Mary Jackson  

Mary Jackson was a mathematician and the first black engineer at NASA. She was involved with hiring and promoting women in science, engineering and Maths at NASA. She was also involved with the wind tunnel and flight experiments, she extracted the relevant data and analysed it. 

All of these women have paved a way for women to work in science, engineering and maths.  

• female empowerment
• science
• STEM
• women
• women in STEM