Jeanne Dumée

Jeanne Dumée (1660 in Paris – 1706) was a French astronomer and the author of an astronomical text, Entretiens sur l’opinion de Copernic touchant la mobilité de la terre (Conversations on Copernicus’ Opinion on the Movement of the Earth). Dumée, born in Paris, was interested in astronomy since childhood. She married young and became a widow at age 17, when her husband died in battle in Germany at the head of a company he commanded. She was also known for her feminism, as she supported the idea that women were just as smart and useful in the science world as men were. While not much is known about her childhood or education, many of the women of her age who were educated by their parents at home or by private tutors, or even by their husbands after they were married depending on the situation that they were in. "In the case of Maria Cunitz, she was educated by her father at home. She studied languages, classics, science, and the arts. Then she married a physician and amateur astronomer. Soon she was the primary astronomer in the family. At thirty, she published a set of astronomical tables." The situation for Jeanne Dumée may have been a similar one. She may have been educated in all of the necessary fields at her home and then gone on to become the primary astronomer of her household once her husband had died. She was known for her published work, Entretiens sur l’opinion de Copernic touchant la mobilité de la terre, as well as her feminist ideas that she had inserted into her publication. Similar to her education, not much is known about her family life save for the fact that she was married at a fairly young age and then widowed at the age of seventeen when her husband was killed in battle in Germany at the head of a company that he commanded. This did not deter her from her studies, however, as she went on to become a published author and famed astronomer. Family life in France during her lifetime, however, was very conservative. Men were typically the heads of the households, with the women either staying at home or needing their husbands’ permission before going out to work.