Through the work we’ve done in ThinkHer, a pattern begins to emerge: a woman’s insistence on shifting what’s accepted as normal. Whether it’s in how they studied, taught, moved through institutions, or lived outside them, these women didn’t just make space for themselves—they redefined what that space could be. Belle da Costa Greene, Mary Somerville, Kamala Sohonie, Rukhmabai Raut—their names resurface time and again, not only for what they achieved, but for how deliberately they lived. For women, even the most groundbreaking titles rarely ensured entry into the spaces they truly sought. Yet, these women, in their own ways, managed to shape and carve out those very spaces. Laura Maria Caterina Bassi Veratti (Laura Bassi), too, belongs in this line.
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| Portrait of Laura Bassi by Carlo Vandi |
Laura Bassi’s career began at a time when the very idea of a woman engaging in scientific thought—let alone being recognized for it—was rare and often met with resistance. She was born in 1711 in Bologna, a city that held a unique position in early modern Europe [1]. Unlike many other parts of the continent, Bologna had a history of relative openness toward women’s intellectual pursuits. But even within this relatively tolerant environment, Bassi's path was exceptional.
From an early age, Bassi displayed a sharp intellect. Her family, recognizing her potential, arranged for her to receive a private education. She studied Latin and French, philosophy and mathematics, and eventually began training under Gaetano Tacconi, a professor of medicine and philosophy at the University of Bologna. Her aptitude for natural philosophy—what we now call physics—quickly became apparent, and Tacconi introduced her to the city’s intellectual elite. It was through these social and scholarly circles that Bassi came to the attention of Prospero Lambertini—then the Archbishop of Bologna and later Pope Benedict XIV—who would become her most influential patron [2].
In April 1732, at the age of 21, under Lambertini’s patronage, Bassi participated in a formal disputation, a public academic examination in which candidates defended a series of philosophical and scientific theses. But this was no ordinary defense. Hers was not a quiet, internal affair. It took place in the grand Palazzo Pubblico before a large audience of scholars, clergy, and civic leaders. Because she was a woman, Bassi was expected to prove herself not just to faculty but to the broader society—her competence measured by public scrutiny. That day, she defended forty-nine theses in logic and natural philosophy—concise arguments debated in Latin—with such clarity, precision, and authority that the University of Bologna awarded her a doctoral degree. In doing so, she became the first woman in Europe to receive a university doctorate in science. That same year, she also became the first female member of the Academy of Science of Bologna, after sixteen members unanimously agreed to admit her upon witnessing the brilliance of her public defense [2]. Her achievement was more than personal—it ruptured the rigid academic order, making visible what had long been denied: that women, too, belonged at the highest levels of intellectual life.
The accolades did not stop there. That same year, she was appointed as a professor of natural philosophy at the University of Bologna. This was an extraordinary achievement, yet it came with invisible conditions. Despite the official title, Bassi was not permitted to teach in most university classrooms. The reason was simple and telling: the majority of students were men, and it was deemed inappropriate for a woman to lecture them. The university’s discomfort lay not in her abilities, which were undeniable, but in the optics of a woman occupying a position of authority over male students. Instead, she was allowed to give public lectures—events that were open to both men and women. These lectures were well attended and intellectually rigorous, often drawing praise from local elites and foreign visitors alike. Yet they remained outside the core structures of academic teaching.
The pattern—of creating parallel or partial spaces for women in order to preserve male ego—is not unique to Bassi’s case. Throughout history, when women excelled in fields assumed to be the domain of men, systems were often restructured to maintain gendered hierarchies. In the early 20th century, women’s football was banned in England because it drew enormous crowds and public admiration—threatening the popularity and pride of the men’s game [3]. Similarly, certain Olympic events were split by gender or discontinued when women began to outperform expectations, as was the case in early long-distance and endurance sports. These are not just footnotes in history; they are part of a broader pattern in which women’s excellence is met not with inclusion, but with strategic exclusion.
When Bassi later married Giuseppe Veratti, a fellow academic, she was further restricted—barred from giving public lectures altogether. After marriage, these social expectations became even more rigid, and many in Bologna disapproved of the union, not only because they believed married women should not hold academic posts, but also because it was widely thought that Veratti was intellectually inferior to Bassi—a reversal of the normative gender dynamic that unsettled many. Thus, she began offering private lessons and transformed her home into a hub of intellectual activity. It became a site of lectures, experiments, and discussions—a kind of informal academy that welcomed students and scholars alike. In doing so, she found ways to share knowledge even when official channels were closed to her.
Meanwhile, the scientific community in Bologna was itself undergoing a transformation. Members of the Academy were divided—some, including her mentor Gaetano Tacconi, remained loyal to the Aristotelian and Cartesian traditions, while others embraced the emerging Newtonian framework. Bassi increasingly aligned herself with the latter. By shaping the content of her public lectures and championing Newtonian approaches, the Newtonian faction of the Istituto helped establish her as a modern natural philosopher [4]. She became one of the earliest and most vocal advocates of Isaac Newton’s ideas in Italy, playing a crucial role in disseminating them through her teaching and writing. Her home became an informal laboratory and intellectual hub where she conducted experiments in electricity, hydraulics, and optics. Bassi was methodical and collaborative in her approach, often working alongside her husband, Giuseppe Veratti, who was also a physicist. She corresponded with leading scientists of her day, including members of the French Academy of Sciences, and kept abreast of the latest developments across Europe, demonstrating both technical expertise and an extraordinary command of contemporary scientific thought.
Despite limited access to university facilities, Laura Bassi published 28 scientific papers and pursued research in areas such as thermodynamics and fluid dynamics, always seeking to apply theoretical knowledge to practical problems. Her persistent excellence and advocacy for full participation in academic life culminated in 1776—two years before her death—when she was appointed to a chair in experimental physics at the University of Bologna and granted a more substantial teaching role at the Institute of Sciences [5]. These appointments, though long overdue, were hard-won acknowledgments of her decades-long commitment to science and education.
Bassi did not merely participate in the scientific world; she reshaped it. In a system designed to exclude her, she insisted on more—petitioning for the right to lecture, to teach, to belong. Her achievements were not symbolic but acts of defiance and determination, quietly expanding the boundaries of who could be seen as a scientist. The academic spaces women occupy today—lecture halls, laboratories, institutions—exist because of the relentless efforts of such women. They are not the products of inevitability, but of long, uneven struggles—often resisted, occasionally won, and too frequently erased.
Written by Janaky S. and edited by Parvathy Ramachandran
References:
1. https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/project/directory-of-women-philosophers/bassi-laura-maria-caterina-1711-1778/
2. https://www.infinite-women.com/women/laura-bassi/
3. https://www.bbc.com/bbcthree/article/770a0586-b999-4d22-bc7f-2e0a5e58a2ff
4. Findlen, Paula. “Science as a Career in Enlightenment Italy: The Strategies of Laura Bassi.” Isis, vol. 84, no. 3, 1993, pp. 441–69. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/235642.
5. https://scientificwomen.net/women/bassi-laura-13
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