Role of women in math science and engineering field - Essay Example

Most of the medieval French women scientists living in the ‘Witch Craze’ timeline, such as Martine de Martine de Berterau du Chatalet (famously as Baroness de Beausoleil), did not have formal education. They grew up in social environments conducive for intellectual development or lived in families of scientists. However, the case of Martine de Berterau du Chatalet is not clear, but records indicate that she was married to Jean de Chastelet, Baron de Beausoleil et dAuffenbach and a renowned expert in mining and mineralogy in Europe during the seventeenth century.

There are limited sources of information and facts concerning French women scientists, especially during the Witch Craze. This is partly due to the obsession of secrecy by female scientists fearing to be branded as witches. In the mediaeval society, the fear of witchcraft led to the death of a significant number of women, majority of whom constituted the wise women of the French community in the fields of midwifery, alchemists, and herbalists (Rayner-Canham 23). This is what befell Baroness de Beausoleil.

Baroness de Beausoleil sought to practice modern science in the seventeenth century. She used a variety of metal rods and hazel branches to locate water and rich mineral deposits. Together with her husband, they travelled through Hungarian, Germany, Polish, Central Europe, Scotia, Sweden, and Papal States, exploring and discovering deposits and mines, as well as studying the basement resources and the prospecting and mining operations in Bolivia. Her tools, practices, and methods incorporated alchemy, astrology, and dowsing.

In the book “Woman in Science”, Mozans reflects Baroness de Beausoleil as lacking patience with those who believed that the hidden treasures of the earth could not be found without the aid of demons or witchcraft magic. More significantly, the book highlights her ridicule to those who believing in