Women in STEM: Middle Ages - Part I

In the previous installment we concluded our journey through the Ancient Ages by introducing the first women who contributed to science, technology, engineering and mathematics. This time we move on to the Middle Ages where medicine was the one that benefited the most from the contributions made by women, both geographically and temporally distanced.

Keng Hsien-Seng (around 975 A.D.)

A Chinese woman, daughter of an eminent scholar named Keng Chhien, she is described by Wu Shu in his writings on science as a woman who from a young age was intelligent and liked to read books. She was also fond of writing, wrote poetry worthy of compliments, but who was also familiar with Taoist techniques and who could control spirits. She became an expert in yellow and white alchemy with many other powerful, mysterious and incomprehensible transformations. Wu Shu says that no one knew how she obtained all this knowledge.

Keng Hsien-Seng was even summoned by the Royal Palace so that the emperor himself could observe Keng's alchemical procedures. Among them was the ability to convert mercury and snow into silver. Possibly he used mercury to extract silver from ores. Among his other chemical skills was the use of a type of primitive Soxhlet process to extract camphor using alcohol.

Al-ʻIjliyyah (10th century)

Also known as Mariam al-Asṭurlābiyya, although this name is not mentioned in the only source with information about her. She was a native of Aleppo, which corresponds to what is now Syria. She was dedicated to the creation of astrolabes, both she and her father Al-ʻIjliyy were apprenticed to the astrolabe maker Nasṭūlus, who came from Baghdad. She was hired by the first emir of Aleppo, Sayf al-Dawla, who reigned from 944 to 967.

Dobrodeia of Kiev (early 12th century)

She was a Russian princess, daughter of Mstislav I of Kiev and Christina Ingesdotter of Sweden, she married the Byzantine co-emperor Alexius Comnenus. At the imperial court in Constantinople she became part of the circle of intellectual women, which included Alexius' aunt Anna Comnenus and another noblewoman named Irene, who was known as the patroness of astrologers and scholars. There she was motivated to find her own academic interest. Theodore Balsamon noted that Dobrodeia showed a fascination for healing methods and formulated medicinal ointments, the efficiency of which was embodied in a treatise entitled in Greek Alimma (ointments). This treatise is considered to be the first written by a woman.

Trota of Salerno (early 12th century)

She was a physician and writer from the coastal city of Salerno, in southern Italy. She became known even in France and England in the 12th and 13th centuries. A Latin text compiles some of her therapies and a cure she achieved, the text is more a set of treatises on women in medicine and is known as Trotula. She specialized in the reproductive system and childbirth. She is credited with being the first gynecologist in the world.

She was also a professor at the Salerno Medical School, the first medical school in the world and where Trota was trained. As a teacher she passed on all her knowledge to her students, which led to improved treatment of women's health in the Western world. She promoted ways to live a long and healthy life and was an advocate of incorporating exercise, good nutrition, low stress living and hygiene into daily life.

Here is the second part Women in STEM: Middle Ages - Part II

Cristina Valverde

Software Engineer