CELEBRATING WOMEN’S MONTH: Women in Meteorology

Every March, Women’s Month is celebrated worldwide. This observance is rooted in the different activities of women in the early 20th century, where women’s rights and other social concerns were raised. These include low wages, lack of protection and the unjust working conditions of women workers during that time.

Looking back at the time before the mid-19th Century, education for women was limited as they were taught to mostly focus in religion, singing, dancing and other skills and knowledge that would prepare them in their traditional roles of being wives and mothers.

Back then, teaching was the only acceptable occupation for women. There was a wide gender gap in most professions, especially the male-dominated fields of science, including meteorology.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), more women officially began entering the world of weather forecasting in 1942 because men were needed in the war. When Pearl Harbor was bombed, only two women were working in the observation and forecast staff of the Weather Bureau in the United States.

In 1942, the Weather Bureau issued the following announcement:

OPPORTUNITY FOR WOMEN IN METEOROLOGICAL WORK

“Although there has been much prejudice against and few precedents for employing women generally for professional work in meteorology, perhaps a dozen women have obtained meteorological positions in the last few years, mostly outside the government service. However, since there is at present an acute shortage of both trained meteorologists and men for observers and clerical positions in the Weather Bureau and other government agencies, airlines, etc., women with the proper qualifications (same as for men) are now being welcomed in many places where they were not encouraged even last year. (In England women have already taken over many meteorological posts, we hear.) Therefore, women with training or experience in meteorology or its branches should apply immediately for any of the current or forthcoming U.S. Civil Service examinations in meteorology which are open to them… This will be an opportunity to join the vanguard of the many women who will very likely find careers in meteorology in the not too distant future and at the same time it will be a patriotic choice in case the war should require many women to replace or supplement men as meteorologists.”

Over 900 women became part of the Weather Bureau, mostly in clerical positions or as junior observers. Many of them worked as temporary employees but were changed to permanent status later on.

Here are some of the women in history who excelled in conventionally male disciplines like science and mathematics, leading them to leave their mark in the field of meteorology:

Sarah Frances Whiting (1847-1927, American)

Whiting did not have the chance to obtain formal education but her father, Joel Whiting, tutored her in mathematics and physics. As the first woman to join the New England Meteorological Society, she assembled a meteorological station where she imparted her knowledge by teaching. Her students gathered data for the U.S.Weather Bureau.

She was also known for establishing the first physics laboratory for women and the astronomical observatory in Wellesly. Whiting set up the second undergraduate physics laboratory, and was able to produce the first X-ray photographs in the United States.

Famous for using the spectroscope, a wiring diagram for an apparatus utilized in generating electric sparks, Whiting also wrote several astronomical articles and was able to publish a book entitled “Daytime and Evening Exercises in Astronomy.”

Eleanor Anne Ormerod (1828-1901, English)

Provided by her mother with a general education, Ormerod learned to speak and write in various languages including English, French, Latin, Italian, Spanish, Dutch and Norwegian. She was known for her illustrations that complemented her published works.

Ormerod was awarded by the Royal Horticultural Society for her study of insects, determing which were beneficial for gardeners and which were pests.

She became interested in meteorology when she moved to Torquay with his brother, George Wareing Ormerod, who took meteorological observations and became a Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society in 1874. Because of him, Ormerod’s curiosity about the weather and its relationship to insects grew.

Ormerod later on became the first woman Fellow of the Royal Meteorological Society. She built her own meteorological station at Isleworth, published manuscripts and assembled decades of observations from other weather stations.

Caterina Scarpellini (1808-1873, Italian)

Scarpellini was the founder of the Meteorological Ozonometric Station in Rome. As a meteorologist in Rome, she preserved records of the weather and ozone conditions, and was able to publish different manuscripts about ozone and coastal squalls.

Eleanor Stabler Brooks (1892-1986, American)

Wife of a founder of the American Meteorological Society, Charles S. Brooks, Eleanor Brooks was also a known meteorologist herself. She worked at the Blue Hill Observatory and became an indexer for the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society for ten years.

The Brooks couple helped each other in producing a daily weather article for newspapers entitled “Why the Weather?” and was later on published as a book.

Joanne Simpson (1923-2010, American)

Because of her fascination with clouds as she sailed in her small catboat, Simpson became interested in the weather. After her Master’s Degree, she moved on to a Ph.D. program. That time she was told by a faculty member that no woman ever got a Ph.D.in meteorology and if anyone did, she would still end up unemployed.

Instead of losing hope, Simpson completed a course under Herbert Riehl, known as the “father of tropical meteorology”. She focused on tropical cumulous clouds and with her strong perseverance, was able to make Riehl her Ph.D. advisor.

She filmed clouds on long flights and drew maps of cloud formations. Simpson was the first meteorologist to reveal patterns that are now shown by satellites that helped describe the role of clouds in global atmospheric circulation. Simpson pursued her studies and observations, leading her to become the first woman to hold a Ph.D.in meteorology.

Mentioned above are just some of the women who excelled in the history of meteorology. This only proves that women have contributed a remarkable impact in the field of science. What we have today and how we track the atmosphere are fruits of their exceptional ideas, ideas that will come a long way and will lead to future innovations.

Sources:

http://passporttoknowledge.com/storm/who/bios/women1.htm
http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Simpson/simpson2.php
http://www.history.noaa.gov/stories_tales/women6.html
https://books.google.com.ph/books?id=nFt6csjzc48C&pg=PA462&lpg=PA462&dq=Sarah+Frances+Whiting+meteorology&source=bl&ots=GyEPnoaBK6&sig=eBpKk3U2SXiFzKkZ6lH3Lp3caJw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=SZn-VMC-MtH48QW8s4GwAw&ved=0CEwQ6AEwDA#v=onepage&q=Sarah%20Frances%20Whiting%20meteorology&f=false