The understanding of women

Elizabeth Gilbert pays tribute to “women of science throughout history” at the end of her book The Signature of All Things.

In the acknowledgements of her book about a woman botanist born in 1800, she quotes Christine de Pizan, who wrote about women scientists in The Book of the City of Ladies in 1405:

“Rest assured, dear friend, that many noteworthy and great sciences and arts have been discovered through the understanding and subtlety of women, both in cognitive speculation, demonstrated in writing, and in the arts, manifested in manual works of labor. I will give you plenty of examples.”