Women as calculators in a military Observatory in Spain.

Abstract

The Royal Astronomical Observatory of the Navy in San Fernando is one of Spain's oldest and most important scientific institutions, and led by director Cecilio Pujazón, actively participated in the international astronomy cooperation project The Sky Map, launched in Paris in 1887 in the Conference of Astronomists and proposed by Mouchez. As a military institution, women's access to its work was historically difficult, compounding the already difficult access of women to the world of science. However, like other observatories, the Observatory of San Fernando hired women to perform measurements and calculations for astrophotographic plates, a painstaking task requiring many hours of work. This strategy was implemented because hiring women was more economical and submissive. This study, with a methodology of bibliography and documental research which includes consultation of the Observatory of San Fernando's historical archives (especially the Master Books), seeks to discover, make visible, and empower the presence of these women from a gender perspective. Information was found on 30 women hired between 1919 and 1967 and this period coincided with a very difficult political and social time for women in Spain. They were hired in lower positions and were fired when they got married. Although their work was rendered invisible and their roles subordinate, their presence in a male-dominated military institution paved the way for future hiring. The analysis concludes that, both in this observatory and in others, the discriminatory circumstances of their work highlight the persistent gender inequality in science. This study joins others already underway at observatories around the world (Harvard, Melbourne, Paris, the Vatican) where women were also hired under similar circumstances. All these studies aim to bring these women out of anonymity and conduct gender studies within the scientific community. At the international level, it has been agreed to rename them as Women Astronomical Computers, and in future research, the aim is to create a common bank of digitized documentation of their work.