Taking on this male scientific establishment wasn’t easy, of course. But for Victorian women—women like Caroline Kennard—everything was at stake. They were fighting for their fundamental rights. They weren’t even recognized as full citizens by their own countries. By 1887 only two-thirds of US states allowed a married woman to keep her own earnings. And it wasn’t until 1882 that married women in the United Kingdom were allowed to own and control property in their own right.
