Desirae Starr Decoo

Mary Fairfax Somerville

On Dec 26, 1780 Mary Fairfax was born in Scotland.

Mary Somerville is the fifth child of an Irish Vice-Admiral

Sir William Fairfax. She was raised in Scotland and at ten

years old her father sent her to an expensive boarding

school named, the Miss Primrose School. When she came back

from school she had the ability to read, write and speak in

English and also a small amount of French.

Mary Fairfax Somerville was one of the first women to

research outer space. According to the website, Women in

European History, Somerville conducted and published a study

on magnetism. The paper and her later writing earned her

admission into the Royal Society in 1835. This society was

all male and she was one of the first women admitted. While

the Royal Society had at no point been officially closed to

learned women, when Somerville was admitted in, it showed

that were not treated equally and there were inequalities in

the access of education.

Mary Somerville's life was a special and important one

not only because she a female who was involved in

mathematics and science in the early 1800’s but, because of

her research on space Mary Somerville inspired many women in

her time because of her accomplishments. She showed

everyone that females can succeed at high goals. Somerville

also changed the life of women forever by changing the

definition of a “man’s job” to everybody can achieve what

they believe in.