Women Pioneering the Future

Rosalind Franklin deserves some credit for the DNA breakthrough, certainly, but how much really? Watson and Crick used her data, but they were the ones who interpreted it correctly. There is no need to exaggerate Franklin's importance to the history of science. If she had not done the crystallography, somebody else would have...which cannot be said of Watson and Crick.

The Famous Five - Women's HerStory in Canada

Although the Famous Five themselves were never appointed senators, their victory in the "Persons" Case led to increased opportunities for women and their greater participation in government and in other areas of Canadian society. Four months after the judgement of the Judicial Committee of England's Privy Council, Cairine Wilson became the first female admitted to the Canadian Senate.

This landmark decision allows us to reflect on women's accomplishments over the last 71 years and inspires us to look forward and set new goals that will help women achieve full economic, social and political equality. The persistence and determination of this group of women is evident in the strategies they adopted to achieve change - they serve as excellent models for women today.

The National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada collections include extensive material on the life and times of these women, honouring their work and its relevance to present-day conditions. Newspaper and periodical articles, dissertations, sound recordings, brochures, conference data, postage stamps, posters, as well as monographs pay tribute to the Famous Five and the "Persons" Case.

Barbara McClintock

Even before her discovery of transposable elements in maize, Barbara McClintock was among the world's most respected cytogeneticists. She trained at Cornell with Rollins Emerson, one of the two foremost maize geneticists in the country (the other being Louis Stadler). Her colleagues at Cornell under Emerson included George Beadle and Marcus Rhoades. She may also have met Milislav Demerec, who received his Ph.D. under Emerson in 1923. Shortly after receiving her doctorate, McClintock began work with Harriet Creighton. Together they demonstrated that genetic crossing over was accompanied by physical crossing over of the chromosomes (the formation of chiasmata was made by Janssens in 1909). With this, McClintock and Creighton beat by a matter of weeks the German Drosophila geneticist Curt Stern, who made a similar finding in flies independently.
McClintock grew interested in the responses of the genome to traumatic events. She formed an association with Lewis Stadler at the University of Missouri. Stadler had shown the mutagenic effects of X rays on corn (at about the same time as Hermann Muller did with fruit flies) and sent McClintock irradiated strains of maize. With these, McClintock identified ring chromosomes, which she soon realized were a special case of chromosomes broken by radiation; the broken ends sometimes fused to one another and formed a ring. This led McClintock to hypothesize the existence of a special structure at the chromosome tip, which she called the telomere, that would maintain chromosome stability.

Stadler brought McClintock to the University of Missouri in 1936, where she continued work on broken chromosomes. There she described the breakage-fusion-bridge (bfb) cycle, a repeating pattern of chromosome behavior that was sometimes triggered by an initial breakage. In the bfb cycle, broken chromosomes might fuse to the other member of the pair, forming a bridge that was then ripped apart at meiosis (or, in another form of the bfb cycle, at mitosis), thus beginning the cycle again.

For a variety of reasons, not least being McClintock's rivalry with Missouri geneticist Mary Guthrie, a tenured position was not forthcoming at Missouri. McClintock spent the summer of 1941 at Cold Spring Harbor as the guest of summer investigator Marcus Rhoades. McClintock never left. Demerec, by now director of the CIW Department of Genetics, arranged a temporary, and then a full-time appointment for her.

At Cold Spring Harbor, McClintock discovered in some of her bfb strains some bizarre genetic behavior. Certain mutable genes appeared to be transferred from cell to cell during development of the corn kernel. As she later said, "one cell gained what the other cell lost." Though her initial discovery was made in 1944, McClintock confirmed, controlled, and extended her observations for six years, publishing at last in 1950.

Her first public presentation of transposable elements was at the 1951 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium. McClintock expected recognition and acceptance, but instead was greeted with silence and derision. Almost certainly, much of this response resulted from the mutual admiration of McClintock and Richard Goldschmidt. The cantankerous Goldschmidt was a gadfly of genetics, known for denying the status quo. Since 1938 he had been arguing against the standard theory of the gene, promoting instead a holistic, chromosomal theory in which a gene's position relative to other genes determined its function. Goldschmidt fought one of the main advocates of the gene theory, George Beadle. He saw in McClintock's data new support for his theory; in return, McClintock saw that Goldschmidt's concept of the chromosome as the basic unit of heredity was more consonant with her transposable "controlling elements" than was the standard Beadle and Tatum model of the gene. With McClintock making her allegiance to Goldschmidt so plain, it is little wonder many scientists denied or ignored her! In reality, scientists had immense respect for McClintock's data; it was her conclusions they doubted.

The development of molecular techniques that allowed isolation of transposable elements, as well as their discovery in other organisms, including fruit flies and yeast, led to the eventual acceptance of transposable elements as a general and important phenomenon. Today, they are known to be widespread, occurring even in humans.

Beginning in the late 1950s, McClintock spent many seasons in South America and Mexico, studying the "evolution" of agricultural maize by Indians. This represented an early and exhaustive example of ethnobotany, and was work McClintock was quite proud of, though less known for.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vita
Born 1902, Hartford, CT.
B.A. 1923, Cornell University
Ph.D. 1927, Cornell University, Botany
1927-1931, Instructor in Botany, Cornell University
1931-1933, Fellow, National Research Council
1933-1934, Fellow, Guggenheim Foundation
1934-1936, Research Associate, Cornell University
1936-1941, Assistant Professor, University of Missouri
1942-1967, Staff member, Carnegie Institution of Washington's Department of Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor, NY
1967-1992, Distinguished Service Member, CIW Department of Genetics, Cold Spring Harbor
1944, Member, National Academy of Sciences
1945, President, Genetics Society of America
1967, Kimber Medal
1970, National Medal of Science
1981, Lasker Award
1983, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

References
Nathaniel C. Comfort, "Two genes, no enzyme: a second look at Barbara McClintock and the 1951 Cold Spring Harbor Symposium. Genetics 140: 1161-1166 (1995).


Evelyn Fox Keller, A Feeling for the Organism, New York, WH Freeman 1983.


David Botstein and Nina Fedoroff, eds., The Dynamic Genome, Cold Spring Harbor: Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 1993.







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Larry:

I don't agree with you about R.Franklin. What Watson& Crick did to her is very common in Research Labs. Basically, men exploiting women ( and even other men ) in order to receive large grants and "fame".

Franklin should have received the Nobel prize not Watson& Crick.

Should also add:

The exploiters should be called "Users" because they "use" others for their own gain.

New Haven, the Nobel was given for discovering the structure of DNA. Watson and Crick did that--NOT Rosalind Franklin. At most she contributed the data that they analyzed. Try to be fair about who made the greatest discovery in biology in the past sixty years--it wasn't Franklin. She herself never claimed equal credit for it in her lifetime.

The daughter of sharecroppers, she worked as an agricultural laborer before joining the labor union, eventually rising through the ranks of the AFL-CIO to become the first person of color, and the first woman, elected to be the Executive Vice-President of the AFL-CIO in 1995.

Linda Chavez-Thompson

Rosaland Yalow: monoclonal antibodies

News from PBS American Experience

http://www.pbs.org/amex

In this issue:

- Women's History from American Experience Online

A Midwife's Tale
Miss America
The Pill
Around the World in 72 Days
Eleanor
Fly Girls
Hawaii's Last Queen


Celebrate Women's History Month with Web sites from American
Experience Online:


A MIDWIFE'S TALE

http://www.pbs.org/amex/mwt

A portrait of 18th century America as seen through a
midwife's eyes -- based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning story
of Martha Ballard. In her diary, Ballard recorded her daily
struggle against poverty, disease, domestic abuse and social
turmoil.

Go behind the scenes with producer Laurie Kahn-Leavitt and
historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, see pages from Ballard's
diary, and take a poll about diaries and family history.


MISS AMERICA

http://www.pbs.org/amex/missamerica

Explore an institution that has come to reveal much about a
changing nation. The pageant represents commercialism,
sexual politics, and big business. Yet beneath the symbolism
lies a human story -- at once moving, inspiring, funny, and
poignant.

Flip through an interactive scrapbook to see how American
women have changed over the past eighty years; screen more
than 20 video highlights from past pageants; and see a
gallery of winners of other pageants, including Miss Armed
Forces, Miss Black America, and The National Doughnut Queen.


THE PILL

http://www.pbs.org/amex/pill

In May 1960, the FDA approved the sale of a pill that
arguably would have a greater impact on American culture
than any other drug in the nation's history. Explore the
story behind the development of the birth control pill and
the female activists, the Catholic gynecologist, and the
brilliant biologist who fought to bring the drug to market.

Take a virtual Pill to see its effect on the female
reproductive system, screen videos of women discussing life
before and after the Pill, and meet women's rights activists
Margaret Sanger and Katharine McCormick.


AROUND THE WORLD IN 72 DAYS

http://www.pbs.org/amex/world

The daring and ambitious Nellie Bly talked her way into an
improbable job on a newspaper, became known as "the best
reporter in America," and traveled around the world in 72
days -- beating Jules Verne's fictional record. In an era of
Victorian reserve, she would become a household name by
doing things a woman wasn't supposed to do.

Read about Nellie's stay at Blackwell's Island Lunatic
Asylum, trace her path around the world, and listen to the
Stephen Foster song that gave Nellie her name.


ELEANOR

http://www.pbs.org/amex/eleanor

For more than thirty years, she was the most powerful woman
in America. Niece of one president and wife of another,
Eleanor Roosevelt was at the center of much of
twentieth-century history -- a charismatic woman of charm
and of contradictions.

Check out Eleanor's FBI file and relive Eleanor's historic
tour of the South Pacific in 1943.


FLY GIRLS

http://www.pbs.org/amex/flygirls

From 1942 to 1944, more than 1,000 American women ferried
aircraft, tested planes, instructed male pilots, and towed
targets for anti-aircraft artillery practice. Former WASPs
recall the planes they flew, the challenges they met, and
the pride they felt in playing a role in the American war
effort.

Watch video clips of a B-29 taking off and in flight, trace
flygirl Teresa James' 1943 trips, and read an excerpt from a
WASP's memoirs.


HAWAII'S LAST QUEEN

http://www.pbs.org/amex/hawaii

On January 16, 1893, four boatloads of United States Marines
came ashore on the independent island kingdom of Hawaii and
headed for the palace. The following day, Queen
Lili'uokalani surrendered at gunpoint, yielding her throne
to the government of the United States.

Examine a timeline of the Queen Lili'uokalani's life and
learn more about Hawaiian history, listen to the Queen's
best known composition, "Aloha Oe," and test your knowledge
of Hawaii.

Women's History In Australia



DR CLARE BURTON BA PhD (1961-63)
Anthropologist, expert on gender and race bias
(1942-1998)

The National Cowgirl Hall of Fame

Some German-origin women


Ruth WESTHEIMER

Karen HORNEY

Grace Kelly

Molly Pitcher

Lilian Wald

A good article by Jo Freeman, published just shortly:

The Rise of Political Woman in the Election of 1912

That is really interesting Walter. Once I asked my mom, she was born in 1920, if she remembered when women were finally allowed to vote. She said yes and that my grand father was afraid. You know they, the men in the US thought women would go crazy if they voted or spoke in public and even worse they might become unable to have children.

Women of the Century - 100 Years of American Heroes

DISCOVERY SCHOOL.com

Women's Suffrage Movement In The United States

View over 250 works by women artists from around the world in the museum's permanent collection.

National Museum of Women In The Arts



Joan Mitchell (American, 1926-1992)
Sale Neige
1980
Oil on canvas, 86 1/4 x 70 7/8 in.
Gift of Wallace and Wilhelmina Holladay

Clara Shortridge Foltz (1849-1934), was born in Lafayette, Indiana, and died in Los Angeles, California. Foltz was the first woman to be a lawyer on the Pacific Coast (California, 1878). She kept extensive career scrapbooks, wrote many letters and was in the process of writing her autobiography when she died.

History of Women In Law

Great thread Joanne!!!

I've actually been volunteering for the Elizabeth Cady Stanton Trust since summer 2001 -- The trust owns a collection of memorabilia from both the suffrage and anti-suffrage movements. I've been doing research on possible funders, to have the collection tour the US and now the trust is in talks to partner with a major university.

: )

Edithdoll I am jealous, ECS is my hero. Have you been to the museum in NY?