John Lindley - A botanists viewpoint

[Shadeflower]

So I was reading an article about the RHS and they mention John Lindley, who most of us know for describing a lot of orchid species, they quote one of Lindley's ideologies,a bit like a famous quote by Einstein but I think if Lindley was about in the 21st century he would be banned from Twitter and would have lost his job by now.

So if the standards we have today had been about in the 19th century one of the most famous orchididologists probably would have never gotten his job.

Botany was seen as an activity for self-improvement and a "feminine" pursuit that gave women opportunities to publish their work. Unlike other areas of natural history, plants could be collected and studied at home.

However, later in the 19th Century botany became regarded as a professional activity for specialists and experts rather than amateurs, and women's contributions to the field were belittled.

John Lindley, a botanist who served as secretary to the RHS and gave his name to their London library, was determined to make distinctions between "ladies botany" and botanical science, which he said was "an occupation for the serious thoughts of man".

from Appeal to identify '''La Botaniste''' who slipped from history - BBC News

[estación seca]

Look up "presentism."

[Leafmite]

Yup. Beatrix Potter did very accurate drawings but was belittled, as were many other women that studied plants. Madam Currie wasn't even allowed to belong to the male science organizations in France. The credit for DNA's form went to Watson and Crick and completely left out the woman who did much of the work. Even today, in the US women are not always treated well by their male peers or 'superiors' in fields like engineering, computer science, robotics, US politics, management, etc. It can be very discouraging and, no doubt, we lose/stifle many people with great potential because they cannot keep fighting the negative feedback.