She Translated Darwin's Origin of Species into French in 1862

19th-century woman in science Clemence Auguste Royer’s translation of Origin "First published in 1862 was remarkable....it was often poorly-informed and undeniably politicised." 

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"To rewrite and actively politicise another’s work was not just bad scientific practice – it was also, and more importantly, a decidedly masculine way to behave. In the scientific context, a woman’s role was to act silently and diligently (as an editor, proof-reader or translator) in order to aid the flow of men’s ideas." 

Royer responded to this criticism. 

She called it BULLS%^T malarky (but in French). (Check out her heated correspondence with Darwin here at the Darwin Correspondence Project.) 

“'Up until now,' Royer declared, 'science like law, made exclusively by men, has too often considered woman as an absolutely passive being, without instincts or passions or her own interests; as a purely plastic material capable of taking any form given her without resistance; a being without the inner resources to react against the education she receives or against the discipline to which she submits as part of law, custom or opinion. 'Woman,' she concluded, 'is not made like this.'"

Image credits: 

Clémence Royer, from Les femmes dans la science, by Alphonse Rebière, 1897

Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Digitised by University of Toronto