When looking back on the history of science and comparing it to the scientific community today, it’s evident that we’ve come a long way in terms of diversity. A field typically dominated by straight, white men has slowly evolved into one that is representative of the human population and far more inclusive and equal. International Day of Women and Girls in Science was celebrated only a few weeks ago and looking at all the accomplishments of women in STEM made me wonder why women have been such an underrepresented group in the scientific community. In older times, societal norms required women to take on child-rearing and housekeeping roles and the women that did pursue STEM were often credited at a much later date or their discoveries went unacknowledged. The more we look back at science we realize it has always been diverse, the accomplishments of these underrepresented groups have simply been pushed to the side or overshadowed. While reading about different ecologists and botanists I came across a woman whose story I simply couldn’t ignore.
JEANNE BARET, an overlooked contributor to the history of science, was a French ecologist who could be described as the Mulan of botany. Born July 27th, 1740 in Autun, France, Jeanne Baret would grow up to become the first woman to circumnavigate the world. It’s argued that Jeanne Baret made more discoveries than Carl Linnaeus but like most women in her field at the time, her accomplishments were pushed aside and only recently recognized in the history of science. She had no formal education but living in a rural area gave her an advantage. Jeanne and her family lived in poverty and her father worked as a farm labourer. As a young girl she developed an affinity for plants and frequently collected and gathered samples, allowing her to become incredibly knowledgeable in the field of botany.
Jeanne eventually got hired as a housekeeper for a French naturalist by the name of Philibert Commerson. After the death of his wife, Jeanne and Philibert began to share a personal and intimate relationship. The duo moved to Paris in 1764 after Jeanne became pregnant with their child. At the time, women who became pregnant out of wedlock were required to obtain a pregnancy certificate stating the name of the unborn child’s father however Jeanne refused to sign one. The child was placed with a foster family and died the following year in 1765.
That same year, French admiral and explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville invited Philibert Commerson to be the onboard botanist of the Étoile, the ship that Bougainville would be using on his voyage to discover new French territories. Commerson insisted that he was to be joined by his “assistant” Jeanne Baret but French law did not allow women on board. Determined to board the Étoile, Jeanne devised a plan to disguise as a man and use the alias “Jean Baret”, hence the reason I have decided to call her the Mulan of botany. “Jean Baret” was hired as Commerson’s assistant and Baret, Commerson and the rest of the members aboard the Étoile travelled through much of South America making several discoveries along the way.
Baret’s most notable discovery from this voyage is said to be a flowering vine with pink and purple flowers. The plant (seen above) was named Bougainvillea after Louis-Antoine de Bougainville, the leader of the voyage. Unfortunately, Baret’s discoveries could not be logged and recorded as her own so any discovery made was logged under Commerson’s name. Jeanne’s identity stayed a secret until 1768 when the Étoile reached Tahiti. Natives on the island immediately discovered that she was a woman and Jeanne was forced to confess. Jeanne was harassed by many of the crewmen so she and Commerson made the decision to remain on Mauritius instead of heading back to France with the Étoile. Jeanne Baret and Philibert Commerson stayed on Mauritius until Commerson’s death in 1773. Jeanne then returned to France, married a soldier and later died in Saint-Aulaye on August 5th 1807.
Jeanne’s achievements were only recognized recently in history, despite notes in Commerson’s travel logs which said Jeanne Baret should be acknowledged for her contributions. Commerson often still gets credit for many of Baret’s discoveries, but the Solanum baretiae flower was named in her honour. Stories like Jeanne Baret’s are inspiring and show the adversity women of the past had to face in order to be able to pursue science. Although we’ve come a long way in terms of diversity and inclusivity in STEM, there’s still lots of work to be done. I encourage you all to push for more diversity in science because diversity leads to innovation and anything is possible when we all unite and create an equal playing field!
References
Sandra Knapp. “History: The plantswoman who dressed as a boy.” February 2, 2011. https://www.nature.com/articles/470036a.
Eric. J. Tepe, Glynis Ridley, and Lynn Bohs. “A new species of Solanum named for Jeanne Baret, an overlooked contributor to the history of botany.” January 3, 2012. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3254248/.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 
