Could you name an Australian woman scientist from the past? No? You're not alone.
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Most would be able to identify Marie Curie but few could go further than this.
Histories of Australian science largely overlook women. But Jane Carey has set about changing that.
The University of Wollongong lecturer says that, despite what many might think, women formed a much larger proportion of the scientific community from the 1900s to the 1940s in Australia than in Britain or the United States - and numbers have only grown since.
So the question is, why don't women scientists make it into history books? Carey says it's because women's work is less cited than men's and more likely to be forgotten.
Taking to the Field is a comprehensive history of Australian women in science from the colonial period to contemporary times.
From the very first years of colonisation, women engaged in scientific endeavours ranging from botany and genetics to organic chemistry.
There was a vibrant culture of women in science in the years up to 1945 - as academics, researchers, lab workers, teachers, writers and activists for science-based social reform.
In fact, they outnumbered men in some fields.
From the first female science graduate, Edith Dornwell, to Nobel laureate molecular biologist Elizabeth Blackburn, Australian women in science have helped transform the world.
There was Georgiana Molloy, who enlisted local soldiers in her quest to discover "new" plants in Western Australia in the 1830s, maverick anthropologist Daisy Bates, and the "important but largely forgotten" parasitologist Georgina Sweet, Australia's first woman associate professor - to name just a few.
This book is a celebration of unsung heroines.
Taking to the Field: A History of Australian Women in Science, by Jane Carey (Monash University Publishing, RRP $34.99).
