Making them visible: women in astronomy in Australia

This presentation was delivered at the first HAAC seminar, 19 November 2025.

You can click on the image above or here for the Link to the 15 minute YouTube recording:

Speaker: Toner Stevenson, History research affiliate with The University of Sydney.

Abstract: 

This presentation illustrates and critically examines how women, who were involved in astronomy, have been missed, forgotten or lacked acknowledgement through three examples. There are obvious reasons why there were fewer opportunities for women to have a career in astronomy, such as workplace law, but there were other less visible barriers that emerge in the individual stories.  The first woman case studied is Margie Arnold, who worked for John Tebbutt as a ‘computer’ at Windsor Observatory. Questions about the agency of the astrographic star measurers and computers are examined through the work of Perth Observatory astrographic assistant Prudence Valentine Williams. How University of Sydney physicist Edna Dorothy Sayce’s contribution to solar research in 1922 was acknowledged illustrates a common issue with attribution. In the conclusion, I discuss why the inclusion of the ‘hidden figures’ is important in the history of astronomy. 

Bio: Dr Toner Stevenson is a History research affiliate with The University of Sydney. She researches the history of astronomy in Australia, in particular, the contribution of women. Her museum career includes Sydney Observatory, the Powerhouse Ultimo and the Natural History Museum, London. She managed the school of Humanities at the University of Sydney until 2024.