Australia has a long tradition of astrono-

my, stretching back about 40 000 years.

The earliest naked-eye astronomers

were the Aboriginal people, who carved out a

rich tapestry of astronomical folklore that still

plays an important social role in Aboriginal

society. When the First Fleet arrived in Aus-

tralia in 1788, Lt William Dawes established an

observatory in Sydney Cove in order to carry

out astronomical and meteorological studies.

Dawes himself was responsible for surveying

and laying the first streets in Sydney. Even in

this embryonic colony there was an amateur

woman astronomer, Elizabeth Macarthur, who

studied astronomy and botany from Dawes

(Macarthur 1984).

Society astronomers

In the ensuing years, Australia had a sprinkling

of amateur women astronomers who owed

their place in the scientific community to their

connections in colonial society. They undertook

astronomical activities as wives, lovers, daugh-

ters and friends of male astronomers, but they

remained on the fringe. For most of the 19th

century, the scientific enterprise in Australia

was formally closed to women. In a few cases,

scientific societies allowed them in as associates

because their husbands were members, but not

as full members with voting rights. For exam-

ple, in Adelaide, two women were prominent in

the astronomical section of the Royal Society of

South Australia. One was Ann Todd, daughter

of Sir Charles Todd the government astronomer

and builder of the overland telegraph from

Adelaide to Darwin. The other was the wife of

the Governor of South Australia. From time to

time both read papers on general astronomy at

the meetings of the Society.

It was only towards the end of the 19th cen-

tury that women were allowed to enter univer-

sities. In fact, Australia’s first woman to grad-

uate in science was Emily Dornwell. She grad-

uated in 1885 from the University of Adelaide.

Sydney University awarded its first science

degree to a woman in 1888 and Melbourne fol-

lowed suit in 1893.

Notwithstanding such success, academic

positions even at the lowest level were denied

to women. When Marion White, the third

woman science graduate at Sydney University,

applied for a job as a junior demonstrator in

1897, the Senate rejected her application on

the grounds that “she was a woman and too

pretty” (Branagan and Holland 1985).

Employment

Despite the fact that women began entering the

faculties of science after 1890, no woman

appears to have found a job even as an assis-

tant astronomer in the colonial observatories.

Then, in Sydney, Australia’s most famous 19th-

century amateur astronomer, John Tebbutt,

employed a Miss Arnold to carry out some of

his laborious astronomical calculations. This is

reminiscent of the “sex-typed” work that was

carried out in Pickering’s observatory in the

USA (Rossiter 1982). In 1887, the third gov-

ernment astronomer of New South Wales

Henry Chamberlain Russell had signed up the

colonial observatories to carry out the astro-

graphic work for the southern hemisphere as

part of the major international study the Cartedu Ciel. The work, which was intended to last

a few years, was not completed until 1964

under the leadership of Harley Wood, the sev-

enth government astronomer of New South

Wales. Wood completed the Sydney and Mel-

bourne zones while the Perth zone was com-

pleted with the help of the Edinburgh Obser-

vatory. Measuring astrographic plates

provided an opportunity for women to be

employed in astronomical work.

Plate measuring

According to Wood (1971), there were three

periods in which women were employed to

measure the plates for the astrographic work

for Sydney and Melbourne. In the first period

from 1898 to 1912, 22 women plate measurers

were employed at the Bureau in Melbourne to

measure the plates for Melbourne and Sydney.

In the second period from 1916 to 1926, plates

were measured at Sydney Observatory by

seven women assistants. From 1937 to the time

the catalogue was completed at Sydney Obser-

vatory, 15 women assistants were employed.

However, most were employed for a couple of

years and because of public service regulations

they had to resign when they got married. The

longest serving women were Miss C E Peely

(1898–1918) and Miss W Bellamy (1948–1968)

employed for 20 years each. Women were also

employed at the Perth Observatory to carry

out plate measurements for the Perth section of

the Astrographic Catalogue.

The Second World War

With the Second World War and the rise of

radioastronomy in Australia after the War,

things began to look a little brighter for

women wanting to study and work in science

and astronomy. The Second World War creat-

ed a shortage of staff as the men were called

away to the killing fields. This opened up pos-

sibilities for women to take up scientific jobs.

Rachel Makinson, a physicist with a double

first from the University of Cambridge, sud-

denly found herself in great demand to teach

radiophysics to a group of young men who

were involved in secret radar work in the

radiophysics lab at the University of Sydney.

However, after the War she could not get a per-

manent job in the physics department at the

University of Sydney because of the Universi-

ty’s anti-nepotism policy: her husband was a

member of the academic staff of the physics

Women astronomers: Australia

4.29August 2001 Vol 42

Womenastronomersin AustraliaRagbir Bhathal summarizes the role played by women astronomers

in Australia’s astronomy, now and in the past.

Australia has a great tradition in astronomy, from the early observations of

Aboriginal people through the colonial drive to explore and understand,

culminating in the established excellence of research there today. Women have

contributed to this achievement in no small way, yet their contribution has been

unremarked, if not ignored. Here I summarize the historical and present state of

affairs and look forward to a brighter and more equitable future.

department. According to Makinson the Uni-

versity allowed fathers and sons to work in the

same department without blinking an eye. She

left and joined the CSIRO (Commonwealth

Scientific and Industrial Research Organisa-

tion) Division of Wool Physics and became an

international authority on wool physics.

The young men in the radiophysics lab

turned to radioastronomy. The late 1940s and

1950s were the golden years of Australian

radioastronomy with scientists like E G

“Taffy” Bowen, Joseph Pawsey, John Bolton,

Chris Christiansen and Bernard Mills paving

the way to a new era in astronomy in Aus-

tralia. Thrown in among this group of young

men was Ruby Payne-Scott (Bhathal 1996).

She was the first woman radio astronomer in

Australia, if not the world. Along with Pawsey

and Lindsay McCready she carried out some of

the first experiments in radio astronomy in

Australia at Collaroy and Dover Heights

(Pawsey, Payne-Scott and McCready 1946;

McCready, Pawsey and Payne-Scott 1947).

They were not only the first to use the interfer-

ometer technique but they also introduced the

use of Fourier synthesis in radio astronomy.

However, to keep working at the CSIRO

Payne-Scott had to keep her marriage a secret.

Institutionalized prejudice and the CSIRO’s

anti-female rules led her to leave the CSIRO to

take up a teaching job in a secondary school.

Thus Australia lost a leading radio astronomer.

Fresh air

In the late 1950s, Bart Bok arrived to join the

Australian astronomical community from Har-

vard University. He was to leave a lasting

impression. Bok had direct connections to the

Prime Minister of Australia and has been the

only astronomer to address both houses of the

Australian Federal Parliament (Levy 1993). He

encouraged several women to take up careers

in astronomy, such as Lindsey Smith, Beverley

Hills and Louise Turtle. Turtle was responsible

for pushing the University of New South Wales

into taking an active role in astronomy. She

was also a great popularizer of astronomy in

the community. Along with Bok came his

astronomer wife Priscilla; together they had

written the highly influential book The MilkyWay. Histories of astronomy in Australia sel-

dom mention Priscilla Bok. This should come

as no surprise: two major books on the history

of science in Australia (Australian Science inthe Making edited by R W Home and TheCommonwealth of Science by R MacLeod)

written to celebrate the bicentennary of Aus-

tralia, fail to mention the achievements of Aus-

tralia’s women scientists. Boris Schedvin’s

Shaping Science and Industry, a History ofCSIR (CSIRO was formerly called the CSIR)

also makes no mention of the work of some

outstanding women scientists in the CSIR. The

history of women in science in Australia has

still to be fully recovered.

Overcoming barriers

The passing of anti-discrimination laws in Aus-

tralia in the 1970s and the women’s liberation

movement saw an influx of women into the

science faculties in the universities. Today, sci-

ence faculties have just over 50% female stu-

dents. But the overall figure hides disparities

between the number of female students

enrolled in the different scientific disciplines.

Over 70% of female students are enrolled in

biological sciences, keeping alive the 19th-cen-

tury tradition of women in the biological and

collecting sciences. Physics and engineering

attract less than 10% of women students.

Those who have found their way into astron-

omy are extremely talented but they are only a

handful (five in full-time jobs, two in part-

time, tenured positions) in the 200-odd-strong

astronomical community in Australia. Part of

the problem as to why there are so few women

in the physical sciences is the perceived “male-

ness” of these subjects. According to Rhonda

Jones, the Deputy-Vice Chancellor at James

Cook University in northern Australia, male

scientists in these disciplines still seem to have

a “locker room” mentality (Bhathal 1999).

Despite a positive attitude to the employment

of women, there are still structural impedi-

ments to women pursuing careers in astrono-

my, according to a report prepared by the

National Committee for Astronomy (1995).

One of the problems faced by women with

small children, for example, is the need to

make regular trips to remote facilities to con-

duct their observational programmes. To over-

come these difficulties the Australia Telescope

National Facility (ATNF) and the Anglo-

Australian Observatory (AAO) provide family

accommodation at their telescopes.

There are only a handful of professional

women astronomers in Australia. In fact, inter-

nationally the representation of women in Aus-

tralian astronomy is lower than the average for

member countries of the International Astro-

nomical Union (IAU). It is significantly lower

than in the United States, Italy and France

(National Committee for Astronomy 1995).

The decline of students studying physics in

Australian universities has had an adverse

impact on the number of positions available in

physics and astronomy in the higher education

system. This lack of job opportunities impacts

equally on both men and women. Today, in the

universities and the CSIRO there are only five

full-time women astronomers and two with

part-time, though tenured, positions. They rep-

resent less than 10% of the tenured

astronomers in Australian institutions. Those

who have recently obtained a PhD in astrono-

my have chosen administrative jobs or work

on a part-time basis or work on a shared basis,

research fellowships or work overseas.

Wind of change

The third-year astronomy course at the Uni-

versity of Melbourne run by Rachel Webster

has been attracting a fair number of women

students. Some of them have decided to carry

on with postgraduate studies. According to

Webster: “In the current cohort at Melbourne

we have five PhD women students and seven

male – a healthy 40% – though it has not

always been good.” In fact, the last couple of

years has seen a wind of change. The percent-

age of women staying on to do postgraduate

studies (MScs and PhDs) in astronomy has

steadily moved up to the 40% mark at the uni-

versities of Sydney, Melbourne and New South

Wales and the Australian National University.

It is also noteworthy that women have reached

positions of influence in the discipline. In fact,

the National Committee for Astronomy has

two women astronomers.

It is apparent that things are looking up for

women wanting to do astronomy, but the only

hindrance (as with their male colleagues) will

be job opportunities when they graduate.

Despite the lack of job opportunities we need

to find ways of encouraging more girls to take

an interest in astronomy because of its tremen-

dous cultural value in a civilized society and –

not least – as an equity issue. �

Dr Ragbir Bhathal is Director of the Oz OSETIproject at the University of Western Sydney inAustralia and is a member of the Multibeamproject. E-mail: r.bhathal@uws.edu.auThe author wishes to thank Rachel Webster, ElaineSadler and Michelle Storey for helpful commentsand suggestions. The author also thanks NickLomb for loan of the Astrographic Catalogue.

ReferencesBhathal R 1996 Australian Astronomers: Achievements at theFrontiers of Astronomy National Library of Australia, Canberra.Bhathal R 1999 Profiles: Australian Women Scientists NationalLibrary of Australia, Canberra.Branagan D and Holland G 1985 Ever Reaping Something NewUniversity of Sydney, Sydney.Levy D H 1993 The man who Sold the Milky Way: A Biography ofBart Bok University of Arizona Press, Tucson.Macarthur E 1984 The Journal and Letters of Elizabeth Macarthur1789–1798 Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales, Glebe.McCready L L et al. 1947 Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. A190 357–375.National Committee for Astronomy 1995 Australian Astronomy:Beyond 2000 Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra.Pawsey J L et al. 1946 Nature 157 158–159.Rossiter M W 1982 Women Scientists in America: Struggles andStrategies to 1940 John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.Wood H 1971 Astrographic Catalogue 1900.0: Sydney Section Dec.–51° to –65° Government Printer, New South Wales.

Women astronomers: Australia

4.30 August 2001 Vol 42

“Male scientists in these

disciplines still seem to have

a ‘locker room’ mentality.”