ABSTRACT
For millennia, from the lunar goddesses of ancient cultures to Urania, the classical muse of astronomy, the feminine form has symbolized the heavens, and thus outer space. However, since the time of the ancient Greeks the human practice of astronomy as a science has been an overwhelmingly male discipline. Men held sway over all aspects of astronomy, from observing and teaching through cataloging celestial objects and publishing professional treatises and research papers. Similarly, from the dawn of classical physics with Isaac Newton in the mid 1600s, this new science has also existed as a largely male space, and women found limited roles open to them. With the birth of the popular science movement in Britain in the late 1700s, women and children were at last considered at the very least an appropriate audience for basic-level introductions to science, and a new space opened within the scientific culture, namely that of popular, expository scientific literature. While men initially dominated this field, as they had others in science, women found a way to make their own space for “space” by excelling in a new style of science writing called the familiar format. This essay will review the limitations placed on women in astronomy and physics in this time period, and use the examples of two British female authors of astronomy and physics textsMargaret Bryan and Jane Marcet-to illustrate this process of creating a female voice in science writing.
