La carte du ciel et la création du Bureau des dames à l'observatoire de Toulouse / Jérôme Lamy.
Abstract:
The Sky Map, a vast scientific program suggested in 1887 by Ernest Mouchez and David Gill, mobilized many observatories in France and in the world. The observatory of Toulouse, engaged in the project of celestial cartography, shows the change which affects the social structures and the scientific practices. A female staff is especially recruited to examine the photographic plates and to absorb a lot of calculations. The Toulousan " Bureau des dames ", fits into the movement of feminization of work in western societies. Hustling the middle class values, unfavorable to the activity of women, the Toulousan operators remain subjected to a patriarchal system which confines them in subordinate tasks. In parallel, the activities of the observatory are organized on the model of the factory and copied on the capitalist economy. The tasks of the Toulousan operators are divided and mechanized; they are structured around a flexible and precarious labour market.
Nuncius Vol. 21, fasc. 1 (2006), p. 101-120