Alice Wilson (1881-1964)

Alice Wilson in very tidy field apparel, 1953 (Natural Resources Canada | Ressources Naturelles Canada – Photo no 165185); Right: A much younger version. (Natural Resources Canada | Ressources Naturelles Canada / Photo number 113144-B)

This biography is part of the series Pioneering women in Earth Sciences – the link will take you to the main page.

“If you meet a stone wall you don’t pit yourself against it, you go around it and find a weakness.” This quote is probably as good a description you’ll ever need of Alice Wilson’s approach to her career. Wilson became a celebrated geologist in the twilight of her career, most of which was spent with the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC); she was Canada’s first female geologist. She is also celebrated as an icon for the participation of women in science, possessing a quiet tenacity to get what she wanted in a career without the need to annoy too many of her male colleagues.

Wilson joined the GSC as a clerk for the invertebrate paleontology section in 1909, during a period of convalescence. The degree in classics she had begun in 1901 at Victoria College in Toronto was postponed because of illness. Her predilection for fossil collecting and curation attracted the attention of the GSC’s chief paleontologist, Percy Raymond who encouraged Wilson to complete the degree – successfully in 1911.

Wilson’s degree in classics gave her facility in German and French that Percy put to good use. The two developed a close collegial relationship, to the point where Percy convinced Alice to pursue a PhD in paleontology. In 1915 she applied for paid leave but was denied (even though her male colleagues were regularly granted such leave). She applied several times for leave over the next few years, each denied, until 1926 when the Canadian Federation of University Women granted her a scholarship to study that again was denied by the GSC hierarchy until the Federation lobbied on her behalf. She was granted a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1929 – nearly 15 years from the time she first applied.

Her time at the GSC was interrupted by World War I and in 1916 she enlisted in the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, an all-female military unit providing logistical aid of various kinds to the Canadian troops.

The GSC in the first half of the 20^th century had imbibed much of its institutional and individual behaviour towards women from 19^th and early 20^th century British scientific institutions. These attitudes prevented women from rising through the scientist ranks and the higher positions of administration (having women in positions of authority and leadership was not countenanced); they also prevented women from accompanying men in the field – a restriction that did not change until 1970. Wilson’s solution to these hurdles was to choose a field area that she could walk or ride a bike to or use some kind of public transport. She even bought a car to broaden the field prospects.

Her solution to the GSC’s restrictions enabled her to focus on Paleozoic strata underlying the St. Lawrence lowland (Ontario and Quebec) over which she was an acknowledged expert. She extended her paleontological investigations to Lower Paleozoic rocks in the thrust belt bordering Alberta and British Columbia (following the discovery of oil in Alberta), and into the Arctic (although she never ventured that far north). Wilson also introduced Madeleine Fritz to geological field work, inviting her to join an excursion to Manitoba in 1919 as a “cook and canoeman” (that was probably a euphemism for ‘help with everything’).

Wilson retired in 1946 but retained a kind of emeritus status and a GSC Ottawa office for 17 productive years. In retirement she also taught paleontology at Carleton College (later Carleton University in Ottawa) from 1948-1958.

Some of Alice Wilson’s ‘firsts’

The first women hired by the Geological Survey of Canada (1909). Geologists at that time were ranked in terms of seniority as Assistant Geologist, Associate Geologist, and Geologist (the highest rank). Although Wilson applied several times for Associate status it was continually denied her.
In 1930 she became the second woman to be inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society.
She became a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1935 (by Royal assent).
The first Canadian woman admitted to the Geological Society of America, in 1936.
The first female Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 1938. In 1991 the RSC at the behest of the Committee for Advancement of Women in Scholarship, established an award to honour the memory of Alice Evelyn Wilson.