International Women’s Day

Today, Thursday 8th of March is International Women’s Day.  This is a day when the role of women in all walks of life, social, political, economic and in the fields of science are celebrated.  This is the one hundred and first International Women’s Day, in some countries this day is a national holiday.

International Women’s Day

We take time today to remember the endeavours of women scientists in the study of Earth Sciences, Jennifer Clack who helped revolutionise theories regarding the evolution of tetrapods, Mary Anning, Dianne Edwards – the Welsh palaeobotanist, Dorothy Hill, perhaps best known for her work on Palaeozoic corals – there are far too many to list here, but we pay our respects to them all.

Celebrating International Women’s Day

A collection of women scientists part of a poster montage spotted during a school visit. Celebrating International Women’s Day. Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur.

Picture credit: Everything Dinosaur

One person of particular note, on a day when we celebrate the contribution of women to society, would be Zofia Kielan-Jaworowska.  A palaeontologists from Poland, who after obtaining her Masters degree in Warsaw went on to lead a number of expeditions to the harsh and dangerous Gobi desert in search of vertebrate fossils – the first woman to organise and lead a scientific expedition to this region.  She has been involved with the naming of a number Mesozoic vertebrates as well as being renowned for her in-depth knowledge of Ordovician trilobites.  Zofia has written many books on palaeontology as well as numerous scientific papers.  She has done much to popularise the study of dinosaurs in Poland.

Visit Everything Dinosaur’s website: Everything Dinosaur.