This biography is part of the series Pioneering women in Earth Sciences – the link will take you to the main page.
Admission of women to Canadian universities began in 1872 and by 1871 five institutions made it possible for women to obtain degrees; Mount Alison, Queens, Victoria, Acadia, and Dalhousie universities. At this time the science curriculum was incorporated into arts or arts and science; bona fide science degrees began only in the 1920s with introduction of the BSc (Sara Z. MacDonald, 2023). When Helen Belyea graduated with a BSc from Dalhousie in 1934 and a masters in 1936 – she was the only woman in her class, such was the geological pace at which women could enter what had for centuries been the preserve of men. By 1939 she had completed a PhD at Northwestern University in Illinois, submitting a thesis on “The Geology of the Musquash Area, New Brunswick”. Research on these ancient marine deposits set the scene for her lifelong love of Devonian stratigraphy in Alberta.
At the end of World War II, during which she enlisted in the Women’s Royal Canadian Naval Service, Helen joined the Geological Survey of Canada as a technician – only the second woman to work for the organization in a scientific capacity (Alice Wilson was the first in 1909). In 1950, following the discovery of oil at Leduc, Alberta, she was transferred to Alberta where she began subsurface mapping of Devonian rocks using drill chips and borehole logs. This also involved mapping of similar aged rocks in the Front Ranges; at this time, she was the first and only woman to be involved in field work with male colleagues. She was also the only woman to have senior scientist status at the GSC at that time.
Her employment by the GSC in Calgary also gave her the opportunity to publish. One of several honours she received was the Barlow Memorial Medal from the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum in 1958 for her paper Distribution and Lithology of Organic Carbonate Unit of Upper Fairholme Group, Alberta – the first woman to receive this award. In 1966 she co-chaired the 1st International Symposium on the Devonian System, sponsored by the Alberta Society for Petroleum Geology. Other honours included being made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (1962), honorary doctorates from the universities of Windsor and Dalhousie (1976), an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, and made an Honorary Member of the Canadian Society of Petroleum Geologists in 1976 (formerly the Alberta Society).
References and other documents
You can browse the Belyea’s list of GSC publications on GEOSCAN
Susanna McLeod, 2023. Canadian Ingenuity: A pioneering geologist, because the little girl loved rocks. Whig Standard, May 10, 2023.
Sara Z. MacDonald, 2023. Admitting women into English Canadian Universities: A short history. Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations, Academic Matters.Fall Issue.
Dr. Diana Benz, 2024. Helen Reynolds Belyea. Women Geoscientists in Canada.
Emily Gwiazda, 2019. Helen Belyea. The Canadian Encyclopedia.
