Franklin was a focused scientist, sensibly dressed. As a result she ran afoul of English academia’s fondness for eccentrics and its tendency to look at women through a sexual lens, attitudes apparent in Watson’s descriptions of her. “Though her features were strong, she was not unattractive and might have been quite stunning had she taken even a mild interest in clothes,” he wrote. “This she did not. There was never lipstick to contrast with her straight black hair, while at the age of thirty-one her dresses showed all the imagination of English bluestocking adolescents.” Franklin
Sexism in science - all that mattered was whether she was attractive, wore makeup and nice clothes!!
