Kathleen Lonsdale gives a lecture on the issues she found throughout her career as a groundbreaking female scientist during the inter-war years.

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This lecture was digitised to celebrate 200 years of Royal Institution Discourses, with the kind support of the Royal Society. Find out more at https://www.rigb/discover200
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Kathleen Lonsdale was an Ri scientist, Quaker and pacifist, whose ground-breaking research in crystallography was conducted under the shadow of World War II.

She proved, in 1929, that the benzene ring is flat by using X-ray diffraction methods to elucidate the structure of hexamethylbenzene. She was the first to use Fourier spectral methods while solving the structure of hexachlorobenzene in 1931. During her career she attained several firsts for female scientists, including being one of the first two women elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1945, first female professor at University College London, first woman president of the International Union of Crystallography, and first woman president of the British Association for the Advancement of Science.

Lonsdale, unlike many women trained in science in the inter-war years who encountered severe difficulties in building a career, was fortunate in finding in William Bragg a mentor who actively promoted women in science.

It is striking how high a proportion of those working in X-ray crystallography were women compared with most other areas of science (biochemistry is the only other comparable science in this regard at the time). Lonsdale was thus able to use her immense abilities to the fullest possible extent and thus provide an example of career and knowledge construction at a time when opportunities even for talented women were few.

She addressed the general issues raised by her career in this Friday Evening Discourse which she gave in 1970. Find out more about her life and career here: https://www.rigb.org/explore-science/...

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