My latest curiosity is women’s history.
Why I’m Diving Into Women’s History
I am working on another project that isn’t really related to my blog. I think I mentioned in another post that I had a YouTube channel. I am working on resurrecting it but won’t advertise it here because I want it to stay completely separate from this blog. It will be short 10 minute videos on women that history seems to have forgotten or that men took their work as their own.
Notice: This post I did not use any of my own photographs due to the nature of this topic.
So many women have done amazing things, but men have often taken credit for their work or downplayed their contributions. Women can do amazing things and we shouldn’t be overlooked. I fell down my research rabbit hole ever since I received my new library card. I have been reading up on women in STEM and their contributions.
Leizu: The Legendary Empress of Silk
One woman I was doing research on was along the lines of Theano, I talk about her next. Leizu was possibly an Empress of China who discovered silk cultivation. Lei-tzu, Leizu, Si Ling-Chi, or Xilingshi (her name was anglicized under those four names) was possibly an Empress of China circa 2640 B.C.E. But there are some writings that say she was a concubine to Yellow Emperor Huangdi. It is likely they were both legendary figures. Leizu was thought to have discovered the idea of using silk threads to create the silk manufacturing industry in China. This was after she took a cocoon out of a cup of hot water and noticed the strings when it was unwinding. Supposedly she was the one who created the techniques used to raise silkworms and invented processes and machines to use silk fibers to create cloth. Much of what I read about her stated her story could just be legends but there is some archeological evidence that the time frame of silk production coincides with the legends of Leizu and Yellow Emperor Huangdi.
Theano: Was She Real? Pythagoras’ Wife & Mathematician
The historical woman that got me invested in this research rabbit hole was Theano. She may or may not have been a real person but the idea is that she was a wife or daughter to Pythagoras. (Yes, the math guy, Pythagorean theorem, a^2 + b^2 = c^2, if you read any of my first blog posts you know I LOVE math). Anyway, she may or may not have been real or she might be a conglomerate of many women who wrote papers or books on mathematics, physics and even some child psychology but as this was so long ago much isn’t known and the facts and myths tend to get mixed up. It is a good topic to dive into and to answer the question of whether she was real or not. But there is some possible evidence that she/they may have continued teaching at Pythagoras’ school after his death.
Ada Lovelace: The First Computer Programmer?
Another woman my rabbit hole dropped me off at was Ada Lovelace. She was a real person and had real contributions to science and mathematics, and the idea is that she was the first computer programmer. She was alive from 1815-1852. I know computers weren’t around at that time, well, sort of, they had some sophisticated calculators, one in particular was called a Difference Engine. The one she was particularly known for working on was the Analytical Engine. She stated that the Difference Engine was for the main four mathematical operators and the other machine was being told how to take in information and store a sequence of instructions which is essentially computer programming. The machine’s input was done via punch cards. Machines that used punch cards were used well into the 20th century. So I found her to be somewhat fascinating.
What I’m Reading (And What You’re Reading)
There are many more women I plan to research but that is for a different project that doesn’t involve this one. I thought to let you in on what I have been doing lately. I have also been studying my Korean language books and learning grammar structure. I should really find someone I can practice speaking it with to see if I am actually learning anything.
What are you reading or researching? Let me know in the comments maybe that is my next stop on keeping my brain busy.
Topics: women in STEM, forgotten women in history, Leizu silk legend, Theano Pythagorean, Ada Lovelace first programmer, women mathematics, ancient China, history of computing, personal curiosity blog
