How Mary Leakey carved a place for women among man's earliest steps

Google Doodle celebrates the life of renowned British paleoanthropologist Mary Leakey. Leakey, who was born 100 years ago today, gained recognition while working with her husband, Louis Leakey, and thrived long after his death.

By Steph Solis / February 6, 2013

Mary Leakey 100th birthday: Celebrated with a Google Doodle today, the famed paleontologist did not slow down her work to parent. She brought her three sons to the dig site as babies.

Courtesy of The Leakey Foundation

Enlarge

Today Google celebrates the life of Mary Leakey, a renowned British paleoanthropologist whose discoveries transformed the study of human evolution.

Skip to next paragraph

' + google_ads[0].line2 + '
' + google_ads[0].line3 + '

'; } else if (google_ads.length > 1) { ad_unit += ''; } } document.getElementById("ad_unit").innerHTML += ad_unit; google_adnum += google_ads.length; return; } var google_adnum = 0; google_ad_client = "pub-6743622525202572"; google_ad_output = 'js'; google_max_num_ads = '1'; google_feedback = "on"; google_ad_type = "text"; google_adtest = "on"; google_image_size = '230x105'; google_skip = '0'; // -->

Subscribe Today to the Monitor

Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of
The Christian Science Monitor
Weekly Digital Edition

Leakey, who was born Mary Douglas Nicol on Feb. 6, 1913, became known for her groundbreaking findings in Africa: a Proconsul skull that was proven to be a prehistoric ape ancestor, a Australopithecine Bosei skull that dated back to an unprecedented 1.75 million years, and fossil footprints of prehistoric hominids.

Despite her legacy, there are some feminists who characterized Mary Leakey as an under-appreciated woman in a man?s field. They note that her field partner and husband, Louis Leakey, would often present her findings.

Even after her death in 1996, some questioned the Leakey partnership. Ms. Magazine?s brief?obituary?of Mary Leakey noted that when Louis Leakey gave lectures in the United States, ?he gave the impression that he made the discoveries his wife had made.?

But Mary Leakey did not subscribe to the feminism of her time, says Virginia Morell, author of ?Ancestral Passions: The Leakey Family and the Quest for Human Beginnings.? She was a strong woman who neither resented her husband for being in the spotlight (in fact, she preferred it that way), nor felt threatened by her male counterparts.

"She didn't feel like she was held back by men," Ms. Morell says. "She didn't view the world that way. She didn't feel that she had been slighted in the field.?

Mary Leakey would never have made those discoveries had she not fallen in love with him and joined him on his digs, which were his idea. But Louis Leakey would never have been as successful either, were it not for her. ?

Before meeting Louis Leakey, Mary was an illustrator at the Hembury Dig in Devon, England, according to the Leakey Foundation website. She had gained?recognition?for her?depictions?of Stone Age artifacts.

Though she never attained a degree, Nicol had audited university classes in archaeology and geology. Yet she felt less confident around her learned counterparts, Morell says.

She met Louis Leakey in 1933 and joined him in Africa to illustrate his findings. They not only ended up doing excavations together, but also fell in love and married in 1937.

As partners, Louis and Mary Leakey complimented each other, Morell says. He had the vision, and she had the meticulousness to carry out his ideas.

Source: http://rss.csmonitor.com/~r/feeds/csm/~3/DPddaGYIbCY/How-Mary-Leakey-carved-a-place-for-women-among-man-s-earliest-steps

iPhone 5 9-11 Chris Brown Tattoo Innocence of Muslims Clara Schumann Jael Strauss Alison Pill