This text is part of the special section 100 years of Acfas
Until the Second World War and even the Quiet Revolution, the place of Franco-Canadians was assigned to the household, far from knowledge of the stars, nuclear physics or mechanical engineering. Erased in the folds of history, nuns teaching science and rare pioneers nevertheless helped to pave the way for the women scientists of today.
Beginning of the XXe century. Women were gradually admitted to French-speaking universities in Quebec, but only obtained the right to vote in 1940. However, in the convents, the nuns and their proteges did science. They conduct experiments on pneumatic energy, magnetism, electricity or astronomy. They learn the properties of chemical elements, explain the apparent movement of stars or even classify plants according to their morphology.
“It was not known in the history books. We have this impression that girls have never done science, that it was a preserve of boys,” observes Mélanie Lafrance, who is completing a doctorate on this little-known part of history at Laval University. The researcher discovered a small gold mine of information in the archives of the Ursuline monastery. His discoveries are highlighted in the exhibition. Nuns, teachers and… scientists!which is currently being held at the Marguerite-Bourgeoys historic site in Old Montreal.
“The sciences taught are rooted in religion and the theology of nature; we marvel at the creation of God, specifies Mme France. This is a time when science is part of general culture. If there are men who do research, like Léon Provancher, there is not yet a scientific community. »
At the time, the nuns educated their students on courses modeled on classical courses, continues the researcher. “We are at the beginning of the 19the century, there is a lot of Anglophone immigration and we are starting to have competition in the middle [de l’enseignement] Protestant, she said. Perhaps to keep the curriculum competitive, the nuns include science in their teaching. »
Restricted to young girls from well-to-do families, these science courses had an equivalent level of first or second secondary, mark Mme France. At the time, nuns made up a large proportion of French-Canadian women scientists. They are also the ones who create the schools that will eventually allow women to go to university. The Congrégation de Notre-Dame opened the first women’s classical college in 1908. Under the efforts of three nuns, a second higher education establishment for young girls opened in Sillery in 1925.
For decades, only a handful of pioneering women from affluent backgrounds with exceptional willpower surmounted the panoply of obstacles to doing science at home.
Rare pioneers
In the 19the century, Christian Ramsay, wife of the Earl of Dalhousie, Governor of Nova Scotia, collected several species of plants and presented scientific articles. She also works with other botanists, Lady Anne Mary Perceval and Harriet Sheppard. Among the rare female scientists of the time, several were botanists, and most chose the life sciences, such as medicine or biology.
“All those who have been pierced constitute between 1% and 3% of women; they are exceptional, observes Francine Descarries, professor of sociology at the University of Quebec in Montreal. There was nothing in Quebec society at the time to allow women of the time to do science. »
In fact, the few female scientists at the end of the 19e century and the beginning of the XXe century are English-speaking or of foreign origin. They studied abroad, in the United States, or at McGill University, which admitted women to the Faculty of Arts in 1884.
At the beginning of the XXe century, physicist Harriet Brooks wrote about the evanescent nature of radium. Carrie Derick, a pioneer in plant genetics, becomes the country’s first university professor. Elsie MacGill, from British Columbia, worked as an aeronautical engineer during World War II. In 1974, the Hungarian sociologist and economist Livia Thür was the first woman to chair Acfas.
“The French-speaking majority of Quebec lives under the yoke of the Catholic Church, which imposes a relatively rigid discourse on the place of women in society and their first duties as wives and mothers,” write Nadia Ghazzali and Mélanie Lanouette. in the study Women in science and engineering throughout history in Quebecpublished in 2008 by the NSERC-Industrial Alliance Chair for Women in Science and Engineering in Quebec.
French Canadian women invest in science a little later than their English-speaking compatriots. In 1911, Marie Gérin-Lajoie was the first graduate with a Bachelor of Arts. In 1939, botanist Marcelle Gauvreau was the first French Canadian to earn a degree in natural sciences. As a protégé of Brother Marie-Victorin, she contributed to writing Laurentian flora and wrote numerous popular science books.
French Canadian women are rare in succeeding in science, and little is known about them. “Women are absent from the historiography of science in Quebec, unlike in English Canada, where several works focus on the contribution of women in the scientific field”, continue Nadia Ghazzali and Mélanie Lanouette in their report.
“All women have been erased from history, more strongly in areas where their presence has been little accepted,” adds Francine Descarries on the possible contribution of assistants working with male researchers, like Marcelle Gauvreau. .
Could archives like those of the Ursulines shed new light on French-Canadian scientists? The historian of science Yves Gingras believes that if they are practically absent from the archives, it is because they could not actually do science at the time. We have to wait for the second half of the XXe century for women to break through that glass ceiling.
Entrance to university, the springboard for women
To contribute to the war effort, Quebec women suddenly entered the labor market during the Second World War. They worked as mechanics, electricians or welders in the factories, before being invited to return to the home at the end of the war. “Accountants, lawyers, doctors, we cannot talk about women in the professions before the 1940s”, emphasizes Francine Descarries.
“Women were under the authority of the husband until the 1960s,” recalls the sociologist, who adds that at the time, women did not even have the right to sign a check. The Quiet Revolution notably gave birth to the first Divorce Law in 1968, which facilitated divorce, contraception and abortion. “Once women had control of their bodies, it was obvious that it was going to change the world,” she adds.
“The 1960s were therefore the real years of change for women: creation of the Ministry of Education, creation of CEGEPs, introduction of free college education, abolition of classical colleges, normal schools and home economics schools, creation of the universities in Quebec, are just as many factors that contribute to substantially modifying the education offer,” detail Nadia Ghazzali and Mélanie Lanouette in their study.
Today, women are as numerous – and often even more – than men to obtain a graduate degree in science, explains Yves Gingras, with supporting figures. However, women remain in the minority in certain disciplines, such as engineering. According to Francine Descarries, this situation is explained in particular by the persistence of models and unconscious prejudices.
“When we give airplanes to boys and Barbie dolls and utensils to girls, it gives rise to the idea that boys can build, while girls must appear. And that takes a long time to deconstruct,” observes the sociologist.
“Women tend to put up barriers themselves, there are difficulties in reconciling professional and family life, or even a lack of role models,” adds Ms.me Descarries. When women believe that they have all the capacities to do what they want, we will achieve equality. »