User:VanessaRodriguez/sandbox

Article Evaluation

The section “New Mechanical Devices” in the Scientific Revolution Wikipedia page does not mention any contributions made by women during this time. The main page opens by defining the scientific revolution of Europe as a time of development in the fields of math, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry in the 16-18th century. The time line of the scientific revolution is based on the works of men who made scientific discoveries. The times of advances in the sciences were considered revolutions at the time. Moving into the specific section of mechanical devices, only men who made new devices and technological advances are mentioned. The devices mentioned were developed as tools to contribute to the scientific advances. Although the tone of the article is meant to be positive and proud, the article mentions men’s names over and over, discussing their importance and contributions. Developing new advances was considered one of the greatest accomplishments possible, but only by wealthy white men. Therefore, I feel like although the section is giving these men credit, men are overrepresented and given all the credit. While women are completely underrepresented because they are never mentioned, in any place throughout the article. Another thing that stood out to me was that most developments were named after the male scientists, making it a gendered field by far. Words like perfected, forefather, great, best, powerful, prolific and first are a few keywords that show men were the main focus of innovation. Names like Galileo, Pascal, Newton and Darby are names most people have heard of making the history that had been given effective, only about men. The development of these new technologies in this article leaves the contributions of women obscured. If a woman were to search into the scientific revolution there would not be a single word referring to the importance or relevance of her gender at the time. There are several sections that mention these scientific advances of the time were made by skilled craftsmen and wealthy patrons, which at the time were only men. All of the information in the reading was relevant to the scientific revolution. The links I looked into worked and referenced, articles and textbooks of historical technological inventions. Some links led to a bibliography of such male who developed an idea. Although the sources are neutral, in a sense they are biased because they praise the innovators based on their accomplishments, but the person is only remembered for that specific action. Most links provide a website or source in which some European connection is made, it is written by those who benefitted from these advances, allowing there to be a biased opinion. Most sources linking to textbooks are from the eighteen hundred, most information known now is based off books of the time, not revisited to include the contributions of everyone. The talk page for the article is well developed, it discusses the importance of capitalizing the words Scientific and Revolution, because of the fact that some events occurred because of progress, not out of this world thinking. Other things like the accuracy of links and references, a new way to outline this article to be more objective. The article has been rated as B-class, level 3 vital article. A B rating means there is room for improvement and the article could reach good standards. The article is linked to the Wikiproject history of science, philosophy, science, and sociology. This time was important in the development for humanity in the sciences to help us advance for a better future. It is a topic discussed in most history classes to understand the early sciences, it is very important, but it leaves women out. Being that women were alive at the time, they did have some type of contribution and it should be included to an important topic like this one to not show a gendered environment since the start. I hope to add to the history given to be inclusive of the other half of the population that existed at the time, especially shine light to those women who did contribute but were forgotten. VanessaRodriguez (talk) 14:39, 15 September 2017 (UTC)