Introduction

An article in a March 1930 issue of the Edmonton Journal related a talk given by Robert W. Boyle, dean of the faculties of applied science and physics at the University of Alberta. Boyle recalled a previous talk by Sir William Mulock (former member of Parliament and Chief Justice for the Supreme Court of Ontario) during the opening of the new house for the Women's Club at the University of Toronto where Mulock cautioned the professional and academic women in the audience to “leave some walks of life to men.” Boyle enjoined the women in Edmonton to take advantage of their distinct attributes, talents, and, according to the report, “peculiar points of view.” Try to chart a unique path apart from men, he suggested, while lamenting that women nonetheless shied away from the “definite exactitudes of science . . . to prefer the more general sciences.” In Boyle's view, “the contribution of women to world thoughts and action would be greater if they would face the facts more definitely and acquire a more exact . . . mode of thought.” He was advocating against the less precise form of thinking stereotypically ascribed to women. Women were to enrich society by filling the intellectual gaps of men, or perhaps more accurately by accentuating what were considered to be superior masculine traits. While thinking more along the lines of scientific methodologies that were commonly associated with the territory of male academics, Boyle argued that complemented by female virtues, both women and society would benefit. “Be feminine,” Boyle asserted. ¹