If 'Truth is the daughter of time', sometimes I think 'Justice is an orphan'
Reposting from Facebook. My comments were abbreviated for FB. You know how it goes - big picture, few words. Check out the meme and see my comments below.
My FB post is true without complete accuracy or commentary:
Thank you to 12 Systems reader, Deb Davis. If 'truth is the daughter of time', I sometimes feel that 'Justice is an orphan'.
From Wikipedia, "Payne-Gaposchkin remained her entire academic career at Harvard. At first, she had no official position, merely serving as a technical assistant from 1927 to 1938.She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. None of the courses she taught at Harvard were recorded in the catalogue until 1945.
In 1956 she became the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.Later, with her appointment to the Chair of the Department of Astronomy, she also became the first woman to head a department at Harvard."
Also from Wikipedia - Henry Norris Russell earned 7 prizes/medals ($) including having the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship endowed at Harvard.
In 1976 - Celia Payne-Caposchikin was appointed to the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship.
What I couldn't fit in a FB post:
My deepest respect to the men who insisted that Ms Payne-Gaposchkin be given the academic postings and compensation she deserved. They risked the respect of their peers and their careers. True 'Warriors' in their quest for justice.
My eye-rolling at the contributors to Henry Norris Russell's wikipedia page where they state Henry Norris Russell dissuaded Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth in her papers, as it contradicted the accepted wisdom at the time. However, he changed his mind four years later after deriving the same result by different means. After Payne was proven correct, Russell briefly credited Payne for discovering that the Sun had a different chemical composition from Earth in his paper. However the credit was still generally given to him instead.
By different means? Really?
Here's the thing - all Mr Russell needed to do was point out the flaws in Ms Payne's theories (she was 25, it's likely there were some) and offer her a place as his assistant in proving her ideas. It would have given her academic standing and him the right to publish her research. That's how it worked then and now. But he didn't. Too egotistical? Too greedy? Too misogynistic?
No way to know.
It's not all that different today. The media regularly report instances of intellectual property theft and the bullying of the newly rising by the established authority.
Courage can be costly. Power preserves itself.
Truth is the daughter of time. Justice is an orphan, only if those of good conscience permit it.
I bow to Ms Payne Payne-Gaposchkin's courage, and the integrity of those who supported her.
*Honor Endures*
My FB post is true without complete accuracy or commentary:
Thank you to 12 Systems reader, Deb Davis. If 'truth is the daughter of time', I sometimes feel that 'Justice is an orphan'.
From Wikipedia, "Payne-Gaposchkin remained her entire academic career at Harvard. At first, she had no official position, merely serving as a technical assistant from 1927 to 1938.She was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1943. None of the courses she taught at Harvard were recorded in the catalogue until 1945.
In 1956 she became the first woman to be promoted to full professor from within the faculty at Harvard's Faculty of Arts and Sciences.Later, with her appointment to the Chair of the Department of Astronomy, she also became the first woman to head a department at Harvard."
Also from Wikipedia - Henry Norris Russell earned 7 prizes/medals ($) including having the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship endowed at Harvard.
In 1976 - Celia Payne-Caposchikin was appointed to the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship.
What I couldn't fit in a FB post:
My deepest respect to the men who insisted that Ms Payne-Gaposchkin be given the academic postings and compensation she deserved. They risked the respect of their peers and their careers. True 'Warriors' in their quest for justice.
My eye-rolling at the contributors to Henry Norris Russell's wikipedia page where they state Henry Norris Russell dissuaded Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin from concluding that the composition of the Sun is different from that of the Earth in her papers, as it contradicted the accepted wisdom at the time. However, he changed his mind four years later after deriving the same result by different means. After Payne was proven correct, Russell briefly credited Payne for discovering that the Sun had a different chemical composition from Earth in his paper. However the credit was still generally given to him instead.
By different means? Really?
Here's the thing - all Mr Russell needed to do was point out the flaws in Ms Payne's theories (she was 25, it's likely there were some) and offer her a place as his assistant in proving her ideas. It would have given her academic standing and him the right to publish her research. That's how it worked then and now. But he didn't. Too egotistical? Too greedy? Too misogynistic?
No way to know.
It's not all that different today. The media regularly report instances of intellectual property theft and the bullying of the newly rising by the established authority.
Courage can be costly. Power preserves itself.
Truth is the daughter of time. Justice is an orphan, only if those of good conscience permit it.
I bow to Ms Payne Payne-Gaposchkin's courage, and the integrity of those who supported her.
*Honor Endures*
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Rafael wrote: "Promoting female accomplishments is understandable, given the historic exclusion of women from so many aspects of society, Its very pervasiveness might lead one to think their advances occurred in ..."Glad you found the post thought provoking. I'm still stung by the irony that in her seventies, Ms. Payne-Gaposchkin was appointed to the Henry Norris Russell Lectureship. I wonder what she thought about that?
Rafael wrote: "Never once has a man given me anything simply because he and I shared a gender."That you know of. Sometimes you're not really aware of something until you're aware of it's lack for others. ;)
Approval, support, agreement, solidarity. Not tangible in the strictest sense, unless you lack them or struggle to get them.
I will posit that all too often women's accomplishments DO occur in a vacuum, metaphorically speaking, in that they don't receive the same recognition they would had the accomplishment been made by a man. There are emerging statistics regarding the level of recognition women receive in the writing and publishing world, for instance. Things are ever-changing though, thankfully. One can hope this sort of trend will end someday soon.
The very nature of privilege is that it is unseen by those who have it. It takes someone special and different to seek the unseen, and of course we women are always grateful for the effort.
Lindsey wrote: That you know of. Sometimes you're not really aware of something until you're aware of it's lack for others. ;)I readily acknowledge that vacuum, metaphorical or otherwise, has swallowed many spectacular female pioneers into anonymity. Karyn Turner, Ching Shih, Claudette Colvin, Junko Tabei, Tomyris, Sarah Edmonds Seelye, to name a few.
I would also, in the interest of fairness, have to painfully acknowledge being unaware of a gender bias, the times male superiors selected a female for the position I coveted.
Still, the piece implies an interesting question. Would women have made the equality advances they have, without male help? With no desire to share the spotlight or in any way diminish the tremendous strides women have made on their own, I say no.
No one succeeds on their own - male or female. It is easy to help those who are like us (same gender, etc.). It is much more difficult to see the need in those not like us. To actively risk censure from those who uphold the status quo takes courage. To inspire that courage takes someone of remarkable strength and ability. Ms Payne-Caposchikin's perseverance and accomplishment in the face of fierce resistance inspired just that type of courage in men in a position to help instigate change. It does not diminish Ms Payne-Caposchikin's remarkable life to acknowledge the honor of those who helped her. Together they changed both scientific thought and the rigid attitudes of a venerable but conservative (as in risk adverse, not politics ) institution.
In fact, reading Ms. Payne-Gaposchkin's career arc, I couldn't help but think it mirrored what most men themselves must go through. Never once has a man given me anything simply because he and I shared a gender.
As EG points out, "power preserves itself". It won't willingly cede anything. Even to men.