The lost women of Enlightenment science

Rebellious, ambitious and outspoken, Margaret Cavendish is often said to be the first feminist scientist. In book after book, she railed against the constraints that restricted women’s lives. Even so, she accepted Aristotle’s view that women are born different. He held that men are blessed with hot, dry brains – ideal for thinking logically and rationally. Women, on the other hand, are burdened with cold, wet brains – hence all that soggy emotion.