Women of science in literature

In books as in history, their voices have often been erased... but never forgotten.

For centuries, science has been written in the masculine. Women have often been silent heroines, secondary figures or sources of inspiration. Rarely recognized as full-fledged researchers.

In novels, they sometimes appear as devoted assistants, passionate curious minds or wives of scholars, but rarely as the authors of major discoveries.

Their scientific role is often relegated to the background, as if rigor, logic or ambition were qualities reserved for men.

Yet, literature has also allowed some of them to find their voice again.

Contemporary writers and authors are now rehabilitating these forgotten figures — like Mary Anning, who has become a symbol of curiosity and erased knowledge.

Works such as Ammonite or Remarkable Creatures (by Tracy Chevalier) bring life and emotion back to these women of science who were silenced for too long.

Through the pages of books, memory is rewritten: that of women who observed, experimented, understood — but whom history too often silenced. Literature then becomes their revenge.