Background
The question of women's place in the sciences is a subject that has engaged feminist practitioners, science educators, and science historians, philosophers and sociologists for more than three decades. In this time, feminist research and activism in the sciences have produced significant outcomes in terms of awareness of the 'leaky pipeline', the development of advocacy programs, and increasingly sophisticated analyses of the gendered cultures of science. Yet the figure of the female scientist continues to be a complicated one: troubled by the persistence of traditional notions of the incompatibility of women and science. Women continue to be underrepresented in most areas of science, have low rates of retention and are less likely to reach the higher echelons of research and academic positions.

A significant body of research has examined the factors impeding women's progress in or choice of science, such as: the lack of positive role models; the continued 'double burden' of family and career; and the recalcitrance of cultural images that code science - and scientists - as 'male'. Much attention focuses on girl's early education choices, with the paucity of positive role models (particularly in the media) seen as an important factor.

While we have seen an increase in apparently capable female scientists in film and TV, such representations are often compromised or undercut by their reliance on stereotypes of normative femininity. One space where non-traditional and even feminist re-visions of the female scientist occur is in the literary genre of science fiction. This form has allowed a number of authors to explore the ways in which women might do science differently, or how women's equal participation might result in different models of science.

The Database
The database has three main purposes:

• To collect examples of female scientists in fiction, both through my own research and through suggestions from the public
• To collect, maintain and communicate these examples (with a view to possible expansions to include other areas, such as film & TV or biographies of real-life female scientists)
• As a research tool enabling me to analyse the examples according to various factors such as date, gender of author, field of science practiced etc.

The full list of fields for each entry includes a variety of contextual information which is intended to help organise the stories into various types. Thus in addition to bibliographic information, the database also notes gender of author; whether the female scientist is a major or minor character; the field of science practiced; the context within which the science is portrayed (i.e. a mimetic depiction, or an alien society); the setting of the science work (university, government, etc), and finally the political context of the story world (e.g. feminist, equal opportunity, or reflective of the contemporary society). These annotations are mainly to help me develop a typology of the different ways in which female scientists (and science) are presented at various times, in different subgenres of SF, and other non-sf genres.

Choice of Texts
The focus on Science Fiction arises from my own research background and interest, the fact that scientists are common characters in SF, and also because SF is rarely considered in critical studies focused on the science-literature nexus, feminist science studies, or science communication. I have chosen not to include film and TV initially as this field has been covered by other researchers (see especially the work of Steinke & Noonan).

Examples have been drawn from my own research, and various searches of story indexes. I have drawn extensively on Jane Donawerth's work and her discussions of women's science in SF which provided many of the examples listed here.

Other sources which have proved valuable are:

• Jennifer Rohn's Lablit site
• Sf author Alison Sinclair's article and list of women scientists in fiction
• And Laura Quilter's Feminist Science Fiction, Fantasy and Utopia site (see also the associated wiki)

Suggestions
I welcome your suggestions of texts which feature female scientists (use the 'suggest an entry' link on the main page). Feel free to provide as much or as little detail as you can. Please also feel free to correct or add to pre-existing entries; some entries do not as yet have the full information required for each field. Send emails about the database or project to: helen.j.merrick_at_gmail.com

Bio: Helen Merrick
I lecture in the school of Media, Culture & Creative Arts at Curtin University of Technology, Western Australia. My research interests include feminist theory, science fiction, feminist science studies, and ecofeminism and sustainability.
A list of publications can be found on my Curtin Staff Page.

Further Reading
A list of texts referred to above, or related to the topic:
Jane Donawerth. 1997. Frankenstein's Daughters: Women Writing Science Fiction. New York: Syracuse University Press.
Eva Flicker. 2003. Between Brains and Breasts -- Women Scientists in Fiction Film: On the Marginalization and Sexualization of Scientific Competence. Public Understanding of Science, 12 (3): 307-18.
Bonnie Noonan. 2005. Women Scientists in Fifties Science Fiction films. McFarland, Jefferson, Cal.
Joceyln Steinke, 1997. 'A portrait of a woman as a scientist: Breaking down barriers created by gender-role stereotypes' Public Understanding of Science 6 (4): 409-28.
Jocelyn Steinke 2005. 'Cultural Representations of Gender and Science: Portrayals of Female Scientists and Engineers in Popular Films' Science Communication 27 (1): 27-63.
P. Weingart, & P. Pansegrau. 2003. Introduction: Perception and Representation of Science in Literature and Fiction Film. Public Understanding of Science, 12, 3: 227-28. '

This research has been made possible by the support of IVEC, who designed and host the site. It has also been supported by a period of Academic study leave and various grants from the Faculty of Humanities, Curtin University.

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