Women in Statistical Science: An Historical Perspective

Just four women's names fall among well over 100 names (Johnson & Kotz, 1997) that will always be connected with the early history of statistical science: Florence Nightingale (1820Ð1910); Gertrude Cox (1900Ð1978); F.N. (Florence Nightingale) David (1909Ð1993) and Elizabeth (Betty) Scott (1917Ð1988). Career paths and opportunities were very different for these women compared with the men of the same generation. To qualitatively illustrate these differences, first we have matched the single woman covering the period up until the start of this century with her contemporary, Francis Galton (1822Ð1911), and this is the subject of Section 2. The other three women can be grouped, and 'matched' with their contemporaries and/or collaborators, and we have selected William (Bill) Gemmell Cochran (1909Ð1980), Jerzy Neyman (1894Ð1981) and Samuel (Sam) Stanley Wilks (1906Ð1964), as covering the next period including the post World War II expansion of universities along with the introduction of the discipline of Statistics, in its own right, into academic curricula. Evaluation of their opportunities and career paths is the subject of the third Section. Historical numbers of recognised women are too small for satisfactory comparisons to be made. So the final section summarises some relevant, related, research.