A “Central Bureau of Feminine Algology:” Algae, Mutualism, and Gendered Ecological Perspectives, 1880–1910

• Published in: Journal of the history of biology Vol. 55; no. 4; pp. 791 - 825
• Main Author: Hutcheson, Emily S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01-12-2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Algae; Coexistence; Female; France; Gender; Gender Identity; History; History of Science; Humans; Male; Mutualism; Original Research; Philosophy of Biology; Research institutions; Russia; Science; Scientists; Sexuality in Biology; Social factors; Symbiosis; Women; France; Russia; Symbiosis; Research stations; Algae; Marine biology; Ecology; Women in science; Gender
• ISSN: 0022-5010; 1573-0387
• DOI: 10.1007/s10739-022-09698-1

While women’s participation at research stations has been celebrated as a success story for women in science, their experiences were not quite equal to that of men scientists. This article shows how women interested in practicing marine science at research institutions experienced different living and research environments than their male peers; moreover, it illustrates how those gendered experiences reflected and informed the nature of their scientific practices and ideas. Set in Roscoff, France, this article excavates the work and social worlds of a Russian scientist, Natalie Karsakoff (1863–1941), and a British émigré in France, Anna Vickers (1853–1906), to show how a small group of single women who studied algae created a “central bureau of feminine algology.” The social aspects of this bureau, and the physical space and support funded by Vickers, allowed these women scientists to both participate in male-dominated practices of science and lend evidentiary support to an ecological category that emphasized benign coexistence rather than struggle. This study adds an empirical case of single women scientists managing successful careers in science and contributing to science through publication and research.