Part 1 Participation of Women in Mathematics, Science, Engineering & Technology from Antiquity to Present time

1-1 Early Women Scientists and Engineers The earliest evidence of women engaged in activities relating to science dates back to about 6000 years. Most of these women lived in the Middle East region. The earliest woman active in the medical sciences field was Merit Ptah, who lived in Egypt around 2700 B.C. Throughout early antiquity up until about 500 B.C., at most one or two women scientists have been identified during each century. The earliest woman active in physical sciences and engineering is Tapputi Belatekallim, a Babylonian chemist (or perhaps we should refer to her as a chemical engineer), who lived around 1200 B.C..

1-2 Women and Science in the Ancient World The written history of science begins in Egypt during the old kingdom, the age of the Pyramid (2778 – 2263 B.C.). Medicine was an established profession in Egypt prior to 3000 B.C. and educated women worked as doctors and surgeons. The people of Mesopotamia - the Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians- made the greatest advances in science, particularly in observation astronomy.