Comments on: Jean Baret was a Girl!

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 06:06:03 +0000

Joanne, thanks, see you in a couple of weeks! If you like stories where women got past the gates as men, you might like Rita Mae Brown's High Hearts about a woman who joins the Confederate army during the Civil War. I've been posting posts of Science online attendees on G+ over the last several weeks.

By: Joanne Manaster (@sciencegoddess)

Joanne Manaster (@sciencegoddess) — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 05:45:09 +0000

This is quite intriguing. I love stories like this as it was probably the only way for women to get to do things like that back then. A shame really, but excellent that she made a name for herself doing what she loved!

I am paying “blog calls” to each @scio12 attendee to say “Hi” and give your blog a shoutout on twitter. I look forward to meeting you in January!

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:39:47 +0000

Achrachno, good question, I’m sure it’s in the book. Maybe because she couldn’t have a job if she was a girl.

By: Achrachno

Achrachno — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 04:26:01 +0000

I was a bit unclear on one point: “travelling on Louis Antoine de Bougainville’s expedition and circumnavigating the world” … “She was actually married to her boss, who presumably knew her secret.”

Was she married to Louis Antoine de Bougainville, the “boss” of the expedition? And if so, why couldn’t she have gone openly? I know some sailors had superstitions about having women on board ships, but at the same time women did get across the sea as passengers and I believe that sometimes officers took wives along on merchant ships. Maybe it was some lesser boss.

By: Lynn Wilhelm

Lynn Wilhelm — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:49:28 +0000

You must be able to read my mind, Greg.
Tonight I’m off to a lecture at the NCSU arboretum on EH Wilson. Today, I was thinking how exciting it must have been to explore so much of the world that hadn’t been seen much (by Europeans anyway). But then suddenly I realized that it only must have been interesting for men, because how many women would have been able to go on such expeditions?

Then I open your blog and see this post. Weird. Good for Jeanne!

By: Greg Laden

Greg Laden — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:10:33 +0000

Yes, that’s one where the details would be very important. Or, at least, interesting.

By: Iain

Iain — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:04:24 +0000

There is a similar story in Australian history where the woman who pretended to be a man married a woman who did not know of her real sex after years of marriage. Assuming all of the details to be true, and there is not much reason do doubt them, what would that say about 19th century personal relations? I’ll try to find out more details.