2. Agriculture, Earth Science, Marine Biology
“It was due to the camouflage intentionally placed over their presence in science” — Margaret Rossiter.
How to cite this source?
Remedial Herstory Project Editors. "2. AGRICULTURE, EARTH SCIENCE, MARINE BIOLOGY." The Remedial Herstory Project. November 1, 2025. www.remedialherstory.com.
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Alice Eastwood
Alice Eastwood was a renowned Canadian botanist. She was born on January 19, 1859, in Toronto, Canada. After her mother passed away when she was six years old, she found herself taking on numerous responsibilities in her family, including taking care of her siblings. After some time, the family moved to live with Alice’s uncle in Colorado, who was an experimental horticulturist. Proximity to her uncle and plants is what inspired Alice to venture into botany and influenced her love of plants.
In her early career, Alice spent a decade teaching high school while simultaneously exploring Colorado's nature. In her free time, she studied the Gray’s Manual and Coulter’s Manual of Rocky Mountain Botany, providing herself with the necessary skills to become a botanist. In 1893, Alice moved to San Francisco and became the curator of the California Academy of Sciences. A horrific earthquake in 1903 left the Academy of Science building in devastation. Alice worked to bring the academy back to life.
Alice Eastwood is extremely important in the world of botany. Not only did she publish the first book on flora (plants) in Colorado, titled A Popular Flora of Denver, Colorado. She also contributed 300 articles, books, and papers, and she is credited with collecting 340,000 specimens.
Key Takeaways: Alice Eastwood was a self-taught botanist who immensely helped expand the field of botany and provided multiple scientific findings that influenced science. Aside from personal growth, her work also pushed women’s findings, hypotheses, and conclusions onto a larger stage.
Dr. Eugenie Clark
Eugenie Clark was born on May 4, 1922, to an American father and a Japanese mother. Her father passed away when she was young, so her mother had to be creative with childcare. As a result, Eugenie would often be dropped off at the New York Aquarium to pass the time while her mother worked. Her time spent at the aquarium and alongside her Japanese heritage helped foster a love of the ocean and the lives of those who lived underwater. She worked to put herself through college and graduated from Hunter College with a BA in Zoology in 1942.
She earned her MA from New York University in 1946. In 1946, she began her career as a research assistant at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California. While she was at Scripps, she learned to dive with gear so old that it did not have the self-contained underwater breathing device developed by the U.S. military and later known as the scuba. In 1947, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asked her to study the sea life of the Philippines, however, she was detained by the FBI because of concerns about her Japanese heritage and was ultimately unable to go. Eugenie was a staff member of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, from 1948 to 1966. In 1950, she earned her PhD from NYU with research on the live-bearing reproduction of platys and swordtail fish. Later that year, as a Fulbright Scholar, she conducted research in the waters of the Red Sea from the Al-Ghardaqah Marine Biological Station in Egypt.
While in Egypt, she discovered and named several species of fish. Her passion, though, was sharks. She spent her career dispelling myths surrounding sharks and helped ease the fear of sharks through educating the public. Eugenie was the one who discovered that some shark species do not have to swim continuously to breathe. Her work in Mexico has helped advance our understanding of shark behavior and biology. Her efforts earned her the nickname of “the Shark Lady”. In 1955, she founded the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida known today as Mote Marine Laboratory. This laboratory was funded by William H. Vanderbilt. She served as the executive director until 1967. Eugenie made her last dive in June 2014. She died on February 25, 2015, at the age of 92.
Key Takeaways:
“Few women, let alone those of Japanese American descent, were working in the male-dominated field of marine biology shortly after World War II. Dr. Eugenie Clark changed all that. A scientific pioneer who greatly contributed to people’s knowledge of sharks and other fish, Clark worked to improve sharks’ reputation in the public eye. Perhaps more importantly, she challenged the stereotypes surrounding women in science by proving that women had much to contribute to the scientific community.” – NOAA
On March 16, 2015, the U.S. Congress posthumously honored and recognized Dr. Clark for her efforts to understand and preserve the ocean realm.
Idah Sithole-Niang
Idah Sithole-Niang was born on October 2, 1957, in Hwange, Zimbabwe. Her main focus in biochemistry is on viruses that attack cowpea, which is a type of legume that is one of the major crops in Zimbabwe.
Idah attended the University of London, where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in biochemistry in 1982. Soon after her graduation, she was awarded a fellowship from the United States Agency for International Development. It was during this time that she studied plant and virus genetics. Eventually, she went on to earn a PhD from Michigan State University.
She is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe and teaches biochemistry. Among her many achievements, she provides a new and relevant understanding of the cowpea, hoping to enhance the nutritional quality studies and genetic improvement.
Key Takeaways: Idah Sithole-Niang is a well-accomplished biochemist who not only finds new scientific evidence but also uses it to provide positive advancements for her home country.
Jane Mt. Pleasant
Jane Mt. Pleasant grew up near Syracuse, New York. Her father had grown up on the Tuscarora Reservation in New York. After a devastating war with English colonists in the early 18th century, the Tuscarora migrated north from North Carolina and joined the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy, with whom they shared a common language and cultural traditions. Historically, Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) communities, along with other Central and North American indigenous communities, practiced “companion” planting. By cultivating crops together rather than separately, the Haudenosaunee (and others) were able to enhance the soil, limit soil erosion, and improve the oxidation of organic matter.
The Three Sisters' are crops planted together in a shared space: maize, beans, and squash., This technique was developed by Indigenous agricultural practices. As Mt. Pleasant later explained, “Over my years of working with the Three Sisters, it has become clear to me that our lives and the lives of plants are intertwined.” Nutritionally, maize, beans, and squash contain all nine essential amino acids. Thus, the Three Sisters not only improves farm land but it nurtures healthy humans.
Studying the Three Sisters farming techniques, Mt. Pleasant found fields planted with Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) technology produced better yields and preserved nitrogen in the soil. Over her career, Mt. Pleasant helped to revitalize interest in indigenous agriculture techniques and farming systems. She has used her expertise to help farmers and to rescue neglected crops (particularly varieties of corn) from extinction.
Key Takeaways:
Mt. Pleasant drew on Iroquois knowledge to address one of our most difficult and challenging problems – food scarcity and agricultural sustainability. Mt. Pleasant’s work proved that fields planted with The Three Sisters (a traditional cropping system of corn, beans, and squash) yields more energy and more protein than fields planted with single crops (monoculture). Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) tradition leads us toward a more sustainable future.
Mt. Pleasant looks at the problems of our modern world through a multidisciplinary lens. Drawing on history, archeology, palebotany, and cultural/social anthropology, Mt. Pleasant has promoted and expanded our understanding of indigenous cropping systems and their productivity.
Maria Tereza
Maria Tereza Jorge Pádua is a Brazilian ecologist and environmentalist. She was born on May 8th, 1943. She spent her childhood in São José do Rio Pardo, a city in Brazil near São Paulo. Her love for the environment around her came from a book she read when she was thirteen years old called “Os Sertões.” She says that this book opened her mind and awoke her passion for nature. She spent her childhood on her grandparents' farm, opening her to a wide world of nature.
She decided to pursue this as a career when she enrolled in the Higher School of Agriculture of Lavras. Maria Tereza was just one in four women enrolled in her classes at university. After she graduated, she became the secretary-general of the Brazilian Institute for Forestry Development. It’s here that she became immersed in the world of conservation.
Maria Tereza was one of the major people who influenced the protection of 49 conservation units under full protection.
Key Takeaways: Maria Tereza Jorge Pádua was a trailblazer for women involved in environmentalism and forestry. At a time when she was just one of a handful of women in higher education, she was able to make a name and career for herself. She has been coined “the mother of national parks” for her efforts in this field.
