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Overt or Inherent Marginalization
Overt or Inherent Marginalization
Jane Colden was marginalized due to inherent sexism in science
There is systemic sexism in the scientific community since science is largely male-dominated.
Colden was also overtly marginalized based on her institution and social standing based on the fact she was a woman
Time Period
Time Period
During the 17th century, women did not have major roles, if any, in science.
When Colden was studying botany, it was viewed as a very manly science. Women were often associated with social sciences as well as sciences with less prestige and money. Oddly enough, as we shifted into the 1900s, the main sciences for men shifted to the physical sciences, such as chemistry and engineering, while women were more involved in botany, zoology and psychology (Schiebinger 1993).
Lack of Recognition
Lack of Recognition
Colden was not published with Linnaeus, though they were engaging in similar work regarding plant classification.
Jane Colden classified hundreds of plants and her work regarding a newly discovered plant which she named, Fribraurea, was translated and sent by a fellow scientist to Linneaus. Janes's Colleague, Ellis, recommended to Linnaues that this plant genus would be named after Jane, being coined Coldenella as her father had a genus named after him, Coldenia. Linnaeus rejected the genus and decided not to credit Colden (Vail 1907).
Even in the limited publications about Jane Colden, they all bring her father in as the propelling factor for her success.
St. John's Wort - Linnaeus disagreed with Colden's assessment, therefore, Colden did not get to name this plant. https://massivesci.com/articles/jane-colden-botany-colonial-america-new-york-marsh-st-johns-wort/
Colden was credited by many male scientists within her field, including botanist John Bartram. As well as others in medicine, such as physician Dr. Alexander Garden for being an accomplished scientist, which was still a compliment that underlying reference to gender. There was a sentiment that women in science during this particular period were considered novel and exceptional (Vail 1907).
Creeping tick trefoil - Coldenia procumbens. A flower that is apart of the genus named for Janes father. https://massivesci.com/articles/jane-colden-botany-colonial-america-new-york-marsh-st-johns-wort/
Inaccessibility
Inaccessibility
Since Jane was a woman, she was not able to travel freely. This was very limited in what she was able to study in comparison to her male counterparts (Biermann et al. 1997).
Marginalization was inadvertently shown by her colleagues when, in particular, Linnaeus, denied her name being recognized in any of the species of plants she discovered (Biermann et al. 1997).
Language Barriers
Language Barriers
Lineaus' classification system and publication, "The Systema Naturae", were in Latin. Therefore, in order to understand and take concepts from his work, Colden had to get translations of Linnaues' work. Also, one of the rare criticisms shown in correspondence between a scientist named Ellis and Linnause was that Colden's classifications were done in english (Vail 1907).
Colden began learning basic Latin at the age of 19, which was very unusual for a woman at this time (Harrison 1995).
Despite Colden's limited knowledge of Latin, she was able to classify and follow plant names.
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