Alice Wilson: Female Geologic Pioneer

1220 Words5 Pages
Alice Wilson: Female Geologic Pioneer Quoted as being the “first female geologist in Canada” [1], Alice Wilson has made her mark on this world in more ways than one. From 1881 until her death in 1964, Alice Wilson fought her way through an immense number of difficulties. As a women trapped in a male dominated society, Alice defied the odds when she became a geologist in 1945. Like most women in the early 1900’s, Alice worked very hard through many feminist struggles, even earning a place as Canada’s first female geologist. Born on August 26, 1881 in Cobourg Ontario, Alice developed a passion for fossils, but unlike most girls, this love for rocks and fossils did not diminish, and instead, Alice turned her fascination into a famous career that continued well into her 80’s. “Alice Wilson made geology her hobby, her career, and her life” [3], although this was not an easy task. Throughout most of the early 1900’s, women were given very little choice when it came to profession, and women only dreamed of entering the male-dominated world of science. Alice, quite unlike the other women in society, challenged the typical view and began her scientific studies around 1902 in the University of Toronto’s Mineralogy Division, as an assistant. Determined and hardworking, Alice was given a position of temporary clerk in the Geological Survey of Canada’s Invertebrate Paleontology division in 1910. Here, “she catalogued, arranged and labeled the collection for the Victoria Memorial Museum in Ottawa, now the Museum of Nature” [2]. Just one year later, after completing her BA, she was promoted to Museum Assistant. She continued to move up in the museum ranks, and in 1919 she became Assistant Paleontologist. At this point in her career, Alice felt it was necessary to attend graduate school, and with a scholarship awarded to her from the Canadian Federation of

More about Alice Wilson: Female Geologic Pioneer

Open Document