March is Women’s History Month so we would like to celebrate by showing our appreciation for all the women in our lives, both human and non-human, periodically throughout the month. Today, I thought it might be appropriate to introduce primatology as a “feminist science” as it has been frequently dubbed throughout the years. The proportion of women studying primatology is roughly half, which at first doesn’t scream girl power, however, compared to other fields like mathematics and physics and even other biological sciences like marine mammology, 50% women is actually an impressive statistic. (If you’re curious to read more, follow this link for an article on the subject published by Linda Marie Fedigan in 1994.) That is not to say, however, that primatology is a perfectly equal-opportunity field; there are still many challenges to equality yet to be assuaged just as in any professional arena. For a more recent and in-depth look at primatology’s glass ceiling you can follow this link.
Perhaps the trend began with Dr. Louis Leakey who hired three women, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Birute Galdikas to study wild chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, respectively. These three women would become indisputably the most famous primatologists in the world, establish high profile conservation programs, and influence an entire generation of primatologists in their wake. It’s not too often that multiple women achieve such high esteem in a single field in a single generation. I can attest from personal experience, and I’m certain that I am not alone here, that their existence and the light they shone on the magnificence of the great apes, elicited a passion in my heart and mind as a young girl that has been driving me ever since. My passion was and still is bolstered by another woman in primatology, my mom. When I was young, she was studying anthropology in college and took a keen interest in primatology. She interned for both the Jane Goodall Institute and the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund and I tagged along with bright eyes and bushy tail. My appreciation goes out to all the women in the field who have come before me and whom I’m lucky to call my peers.
From left to right: Dian Fossey, Jane Goodall, and Birute Galdikas circa sometime in the late sixties
Look out for more Women’s History Month blog posts this month!
